Rachel Borovska

Wind woven

Ecological restoration of Breda’s urban fabric through wind

Urban heat islands pose a significant challenge in today’s cities, and the need for cooling and preserving biodiversity are pressing issues. While efforts to combat urban heat islands often revolve around interventions like depaving, greenifying and reclaiming space for green-blue networks, the impact of ventilation on cooling is frequently overlooked in design. Stemming from a deep fascination with the thermodynamic performance of wind, this project aims to rectify this oversight by focusing on understanding wind behaviour and patterns in our everyday environment, using weather, climate and atmosphere as design mediums. 

Through delving into multiple scales, this research-by-design project is dedicated to uncovering the conditions necessary to enhance the cooling capacity of wind, starting from two primary wind directions. In the Netherlands, the southwesterly winds typically bring strong cold winds, peaking from autumn to spring. Conversely, during summer, warm air from the east can exacerbate the urban heat effect if it's unable to surpass urban obstacles, such as closed streets, or densely built or planted areas, which has a negative impact on human comfort and contributes to the loss of ecological habitats.

Wind patterns are explored as a design tool along the eight-kilometre-long railway corridor site of Breda, stretching from east to west. Railway corridors play a crucial role in ventilating urban environments due to their expansive linear profiles and open surfaces, making them essential in shaping the local climate. They also serve as crucial ecological corridors providing extensive linear migration routes for various wildlife and generate airborne trails for seeds. Paired with the ventilating capacity of the railway, the areas surrounding this eight kilometre stretch transform into an ideal testing ground for landscape architecture and urbanism to investigate and implement various landscape interventions and cooling compositions. 

Rather than treating these design areas as blank slates, they are seen as integral elements contributing to ventilation, (airborne) ecology and cooling principles. They are infused with wind as a medium, composing a green wedge that weaves through the existing context and structures, connecting neighbourhoods through a biodiverse, ecological network. A park-like necklace woven by wind alongside the railway strip of Breda.

Graduation date: 28 February 2024
Graduation committee: Gert-Jan Wisse (mentor), Nikol Dietz, René van der Velde
Additional members for the exam: Marit Janse, Ziega van den Berk