INVASIVE FORESTS

Is there space for a Forest in Los Angeles?

We are used to street trees being collectively called by that name: a dispersed urban forest, but what of the space and form of the forest? Its characteristic darkness, impenetrable densities, mythologies. Qualities we think of as opposite to the city – and yet they are the ones we increasingly long for and need. Can the forests return to cities not as parks (or “pocket-parks”) but in their strong form, and in their hidden ways also provide a technology to solve some of the environmental problems faced by cities?

The Forests of Torrance have found a new foothold along Hawthorne Blvd. Sprawling big-box retail stores, fast becoming obsolete in the densifying city, can now perhaps live on as partially dismantled Ruins through this radical adaptive reuse. Using the perimeter walls as casting form-works, the “archaeological” remnants construct a new public space and a vessel for the captive forest.

Tapping into the 3-mile Saline Plume below Torrance, a saltwater incursion which breached the defensive wall of freshwater injection wells – the forest flourishes by diverting this underground intrusion up to the surface of the city. This is an urbane swamp, surrounded by public ramparts, exploratory paths and halophilic test-kitchen gardens. A Smart Forest at last: a self-regulating environment, a cooling island, a hydrological marvel.

We might call this forest invasive – the salt loving species of plants don’t appear familiar or native to LA. But the halophilic botany has been here before the city, in the coastal salt marshes and the floodplain meadows of brackish creeks. The forest is a surprise, much like entering a lush walled garden in an arid city, a sudden and secret place.

Unlike the defensive sea wall strategies, this is a way of inviting the ocean into the city. The well, the pump house and the irrigation channel now become visible and celebratory forms of public saltwater infrastructure.

#brackishways

#bigboxretail

#adaptivemisuse

#invasiveforest

#urbanswamp

#walledforest

#ruinlust

#halophilia