Urban Forestscapes: The City of Delft as a Woodland Complex

To understand the role of the urban forest for people and society a focus on the spatial-experiential aspect (in relation to the human body and human perception) is relevant: trees frame the space in which people move, act, experience and appreciate. ‘Tree language’ refers to the spatial relationship between tree species, planting configurations and plantations and their unique location.

The notion of ‘plantation’ is explored as one of the defining aspects of such a language (next to ‘species’ and ‘configuration’). ‘Plantation’ is proposed as a term to describe the wooded characteristics of areas in the urban realm, defined by a combination of characteristics of species, tree configurations and the density and morphology of the plantation, comparable to a natural forest mosaic which is also determined by commonalities in species and vegetation community structure, as well as having alternations of densely wooded and less wooded areas.

This reveals an urban landscape composed of a variegated wooded mosaic of plantations, which invariably transcend neighbourhood boundaries as well as common understandings of the boundary between city and countryside. In successive density and arrangement, in Delft seven types of plantations can be distinguished, connected and separated by the long lines, the avenues that traditionally formed the connections between Delft and the countryside like spokes in a wheel.