4.2 MAP 3: Temporal-Projective mapping
A design proposal is seen as a collaborative, sophisticated plan for working towards what should be. Viewed in this way, it binds technical experts, students, local residents and municipal representatives with eelgrass, oyster reefs, sedimentary cycles and storm surges. Such an approach is uniquely appropriate for public landscapes, which are dynamic and temperamental, cyclical and conflicted and marked by overlapping boundaries and competing intentions. And it reorients priorities away from knowing the answer toward doing the work – the work becomes a means of discovering what we want the future to look like.
Brian Davis, Public Sediment in Toward an Urban Ecology
(Davis, 2016, p.233).
The intention of this section is to reconfigure the learnings from the multiscalar map into a more temporal-projective format (see Figure 158). By shifting from a spatial to a temporal perspective, it becomes possible to elucidate how the past decisions in urban development have impacted the current situation with water and how present-day decisions might influence the city’s future relations. The research adopts what Wiberg et al. (2022) refer to as comprehensive long-term thinking, which engages time scales beyond this century (outlined in the methodology chapter in method section 2.3.3 Figure 48). Ultimately, the purpose of design research design is to engage in future projections that have not been created yet. The second part of this chapter will generate one possible speculative future scenario based on learnings from Kanten/The Edge competition entries, guided by the criteria set out by the Urban Seascaping proposition. Vejle's future projections (i.e. design and planning decisions) are addressed from a multiscalar approach to aid the future of green transition and coastal adaptation/mitigation by marine nature-based solutions. Importantly, the projections should not be read as the only viable solution but as one of many possibilities (scenarios) of translating the learnings into more concrete solutions. The focus of this section is the design process towards a possible outcome from the research-through-design methodology through the aid of Kumu mappings.
Figure 158. Screenshots from the Temporal-Projective Kumu map. The present-day node is presented in the centre (in yellow 2020+-) with the IPCC deadlines (in orange, 2030 and 2050) and Vejle Municipality’s Stormsurge Strategy document goals (in orange and red, 2025, 2050 and 2070) and other future timelines in red. The past nodes represent significant historical developments, such as the start of the land reclamation process of Vejle Harbour in 1842-1899 (in turquoise) and the recent waterfront residential development 2009-2018 (in lime green). The solid lines indicate past connections, and the dashed lines indicate future connections.