GLOBAL GARDEN REPORT 2012 - Husqvarna Group

9: We’re learning to think
outside the green box
How today’s cities are finding clever new ways of bringing
nature to the city
10 000
square meters
the equivalent of woodland
that the 27-story tall Bosco
Verticale building in Milan
will host once completed.
18
the number of 50-metertall
“super trees” that
Singapore is now planning
to erect as a part of its
“Garden By The Bay”
project.
30 GLOBAL GARDEN REPORT 2012
When it comes to incorporating nature into
urban environments, city plans in most major
cities still reflect a way of thinking about
urban greenery that dates to the 19th century.
According to this view, green spaces are mainly
to be confined to specifically-chosen public
parks and gardens – clearly delimited areas of
green in the midst of a landscape of steel and
stone.
However, with environmental concerns high
on the agenda and with an urban population
growth that is showing no sign of slowing in the
decades ahead, more and more cities around
the world are beginning to think about new
ways of increasing the presence of nature in
our urban environments. As a result, a global
explosion in urban green space creativity is
surfacing.
GREENING THE STREETS
With New York a global trendsetter in so many
other areas of city life, it is only natural that
it should be in the vanguard of urban green
space renewal as well. Lately, the city has
made headlines worldwide with two ambitious
green space projects aimed at making it more
sustainable, attractive and livable all at once.
With the High Line Park, completed in 2009,
New York showed the world that an abandoned
freight rail running through the city could be
transformed into a vibrant urban park; and
its Greenstreets program is now working
on transforming most of its vacant traffic
islands and medians into verdant oases, while
simultaneously looking at planting a million new
trees in the city.
SUPER TREES AND VERTICAL FORESTS
As New York produces creative new urban
green space solutions, Montreal works to
transform underutilized streets into urban
parks. Likewise, a similar project in Copenhagen
– turning vacant lots and other irregular land
areas into small pocket parks where people can
enjoy nature, eat lunch or just socialize – has
recently been hailed as an inspiring example of
how to make cities more livable.
On the more exotic side, Singapore – which