The beauty of performance: Interpreting the aesthetics of landscape-based stormwater management systems

Contemporary uncertainty regarding future climate fundamentally reflects concerns about the spatial and temporal distribution of water resources, as well as the availability of fresh water. Landscape-based stormwater management systems (LbSMS) respond to these challenges by addressing both severe droughts and devastating floods, improving water quality, and integrating water cycles with urban forms. LbSMS respond to ecological and social imperatives while possessing unique aesthetics. This study started from the hypothesis that such aesthetics may play a “performative” role within the system by adding a cultural dimension to the more evident environmental and economic aspects of sustainability. This study interpreted the aesthetics that characterise LbSMS, using a methodology based on case study analysis and hermeneutics. (1) Eight cases at the forefront of current design worldwide and located in different urban and sociocultural contexts were selected, which provided exemplary responses to diverse climate change-related threats. (2) Data were retrieved using a framework developed by the authors for this study, which consists of 12 subitems organized under 4 items: sociocultural constructs, site conditions, design features, and functions and processes. (3) The information was interpreted and discussed according to Elizabeth Meyer’s 11 tenets manifesto “Sustaining Beauty: The Performance of Appearance”. (4) The study concluded that the proposed methodology was instrumental in interpreting LbSMS and identifying its performative beauty. This methodology provides an additional valuable perspective to state-of-the-art studies in this field. The research concludes that exemplary LbSMS, through their synergistic response to a systemic problem, help create and promote a culture of sustainability that transcends ecological performance. This is achieved by designs that prioritise the dynamism of natural processes over natural forms, highlighting the art of landscape design, and constructing experiences rooted in local contexts and histories. Ultimately, the authors highlight that the distinct resilient beauty of LbSMS emerges from how designers read and interpret the current disturbance regimes of extreme weather, flooding, drought, uncertainty, and risk. The study concludes with a combination of categories of beauty and the sublime that characterises LbSMS aesthetics, conveying symbolism around water that unifies world regions in coping with climate stress.