Sage Hill : A Post-Natural Geoform for Multi-Species Restoration

As humans continue to develop, build, and rebuild on areas around the globe, the integrity of the soils that are built on continue to be compromised through this distribution and environmental conditions. With the accelerating damage and effects of climate change, the technologies employed in environmental engineering are expected to provide protection, as well as an ecologically sensitive application. The clearing and replacement of existing landscape is inherently human-centric, as it disregards the other cyclical relationship at play between the vertical elements of a root stabilizing tree stands and their surrounding biodiversity. Joyce Hwang in her essay, Living Among Pests, has suggested that the needed reconnection of biodiversity with our urban buildings will force a re-examination of “articulation [of our built surfaces] to take on more responsibilities. Ornament will become performative.1” The project, Sage Hill, re-imagined the practice of soil-stabilized geotextiles, through new material and technical investigations towards a post-natural condition. A small hill was designed and composed of a series of 3d printed earthenware geo-textiles that wove together, informing a topo-graphic chain, providing both soil stabilization as well as habitat establishment for both flora and fauna.

https://doi.org/10.35483/ACSA.AM.112.37

Volume Editors
Germane Barnes & Blair Satterfield

ISBN
978-1-944214-45-6