The vision of nextcity.nl offers quality of life for all species. Initiated by architect Mathias Lehner and landscape architect Maike van Stiphout in 2014 with the symposium and exihibit 'Live with live' in Amsterdam, the mission of nextcity.nl is to develop and share new knowledge by reseach, practice and university teaching. The thinking and design of nextcity.nl has been shown at the Venice Architecture Biennale and the Dutch Design Week. In 2019 the 'First Guide to Nature Inclusive Building' was published, since 2020 also available in Dutch.
The city of Breda has formulated the ambition to become the first ‘City in the Park’ and has been working consequently on improving biodiversity and nature-inclusive building. Recently the Breda Architecture Award 2020 (BLASt Prize) was awarded to the new Breda University of Applied Sciences Campus, a design by Inbo and Culd. In the heart of the project a formerly car-lined road was transferred into a new park. The courtyard of the adjacent cloister was opened up towards the new green campus. Even when the university buildings might be closed due to covid-19, the new campus space is open to the public and contributes to quality of life in the city.
The stone garden increases the climat problems such as heatstress and stormwater floods in the neighbourhoods. Since a few days a stone garden is forbidden in Baden-Würthemberg. Their garden-legislation (1995) prescribed that paving is only allowed where it is really needed. The recent garden trend to replace plants by small pebbles was not foreseen and not stopped. The film explains to the inhabitants why the new law is made and how to change the garden.
Trees
provide all kinds of ecosystem services, such as converting CO2 into
carbohydrates, producing oxygen, and purifying the air by trapping
particulates. They provide habitats for fungi, mosses, insects, mammals and birds
and so form the basis of all ecosystems, including in urban areas. But trees
also help to keep city squares, streets and buildings cooler. Their leaves
absorb solar radiation, transpire water and create shade, so lowering the
temperature in their immediate environment. During a heat wave, a dense foliage
provides much-needed shelter and a park or public garden with lots of trees
quickly feels like an oasis in the urban desert. On a hot, windless day, a
leafy neighbourhood may well feel 10 to 15°C cooler than an urban area that is
more exposed to the sun, which can be enough to prevent heat stress. Trees thus
play a key role in the design of climate-proof and healthier cities.
To
determine the cooling performance of various species of trees, in 2018 TU
Delft’s Faculty of Architecture and the Built Environment and the Dutch
Association of Landscape Gardeners (VHG) formed the Urban Forestry joint
research programme to support fundamental research into the relationship
between tree architecture and the urban microclimate. Urban landscape
specialist René van der Velde, who is affiliated with the Faculty’s Chair of
Landscape Architecture, is leading the programme. Lotte Dijkstra joined the
programme as a researcher. “Although gardeners and other ‘green’ professionals
already understand a great deal about the performance of tree species in the
built environment, there is very little empirical knowledge about their cooling
capacity.”
In order to
determine how physical properties such as the trunk and crown shape, the branch
structure, and the leaf characteristics influence the local air temperature and
the apparent temperature, this spring the research team designed and built
special ‘climate arboreta’, experimental plots containing tree species that are
common in Dutch parks and gardens.
From earlier this week, 15th of July until 14th of August 2020 a special working space in immediate contact with nature although set amidst the urban environment of Berlin is available for small business meetings. This Outside Society Box announces the development of the 97 ha former military site in Berlin Lichterfelde with 2500 apartments which claims to protect today’s landscape character and its rich biodiversity – with partners on board like the German BUND, the national nature protection agency.
The box was built by the ‘Outside Society’, a young Berlin start up, and can be rented for workshops, strategy meetings and other work related sessions, ideally set next to an S-Bahn station. The idea of the sustainable, wifi equipped and PV operated autarchic box is based upon the notion that “the best ideas and creative solutions in business life are often found during free time and in spaces that offer freedom and recreation. The green character of Berlin offers a unique opportunity for this”. The box is naturally ventilated and opens up on all 4 sides which makes it covid-19 proof to convene with groups up to 12 persons.
“Mooi…” – the daylighted Grift in Apeldoorn, (c) WEF. Still of video ‘Dayligting Urban Rivers’
More and more towns break open culverts to reveal hidden rivers in the heart of the city, such as Freiburg im Breisgau did already in the 70ies en more recently London and Zurich. According to the World Economic Forum (WEF) the reasons to uncover hidden rivers are the “social, environmental and economic benefits” like “public desire to recapture lost spaces and improve quality of life in the city”. The economic advantage of having clean water flowing through the city instead of jamming sewage works is the reduction of wastewater treatment costs.
The 2005 Cheonggyecheon stream project in Seoul is an almost 11km-long artificial water corridor that diverts water from an underground river, that is a flood relief channel and touristic attraction. In addition, the WEF states that these daylighted waterways can help cool cities and reduce the Urban Heat Island effect, and bring benefits for urban wildlife. In the Dutch city of Apeldoorn the urban stream of the Grift has been daylighted successively from 2002 and the inner city segment will be finalized in 2020 as last piece.
Read more in an article of the WEF and see the detailed plans of Apeldoorn (Dutch only).
A call for more ‘Rewildering’ in our cities was just one of the aspects ecologist of Breda Municipality Rombout van Eekelen addressed in his lecture on health in cities. Next to confirming nextcity.nl’s call for more wilderness set out in the declaration Wild Amsterdam published earlier this month, Van Eekelen called for more primary prevention of diseases by building and designing for biodiversity in order to let ecosystem services contribute to healthy cities.
Stress, hay fever, desease of Crohn and other physical and mental diseases occur less in more natural and biodiverse neighbourhoods because a biodiverse set of bacteria in the human body (skin, intestines) helps us to build op resilient health, shows research of the University of Helsinki from 2012.
Therefore in cities, the use of native green in outer layers of buildings, on circulation such as galleries or next to windows sleeping rooms are clearly recommended to bring dwellers in contact with biodiversity. An intriguing example shown was the Sottish parliament by architect Enric Miralles, which integrates large areas of planting with indigenous Scottish wildflowers, trees and shrubs. The wild grasses and trees used in the outside seating areas of the building were mainly found already in the area. The planting list can even be downloaded on the parliament’s website. This is what I call nature inclusive!
Within the ‘Grensverkenningen’ series Arcam, the Royal Insitute of Dutch Architects BNA and Pakhuis De Zwijger discussed the aspect of nature inclusive building on 24th of June.. Nextcity.nl was present with Maike van Stiphout. Watch the 60 mins program back online and learn more about the nextcity, biomimicry and what we can learn of nature’s R&D department, but also the importance nocturnal networks and concrete plans for the borders of the city of Amsterdam.
In reaction to the impact of climate change the City of Melbourne wants to double the tree canopy cover, increase the amount of green iconic lanes, improve biodiversity and enhance urban ecosystems, such as tempering urban heat islands. The Municipal measures are taken in the public realm. The 75 % privately owned land in the city is targeted with an innovative approach: The Urban Forest Fund.
The UFF aims to build PPPs to deliver additional greening. The Fund was created after extreme heat periods in the summer of 2015 that seriously threatened public health. Today ‘habitat grants’ are available for up to to 50% of the costs made by the applicant for contributing to the Urban Forest. For the 2018 the Fund’s website shows 7 projects realized by now, ranging from green walls and canopies to a sky farm co-funded with 300.000 AUD.
“Trees, plants and green open spaces are essential infrastructure in our city, helping to cool the environment, reduce pollution, support biodiversity, boost the economy and improve health and well-being. At a time when Melbourne is experiencing rapid population growth and increasing impacts of climate change, the green elements of our city are more important than ever” states the Municipality.
Many animal species are now more common in the city than on meadows and fields. The city is therefore of ever greater importance for the lives of people and animals. This can generate tension as was shown when a foraging wild boar on the green outskirts of Nijmegen was shot immediately. But how can we learn to relate to nature, and profit from its benefits? How can ecologists, architects and residents help to accommodate our flora and fauna co-inhabitants ?
A first step is to understand the urban ecosystem: seeing the city through the eyes of the animal. The most recent podcast ‘Stadsgenoten’ produced by the Nijmegen Architecture Centre. Together with city ecologist Jochem Kühnen they stroll through Nijmegen and look through the eyes of an animal. The swift to be precise. People share the same place of residence with this species but experience it very differently.
During the one hour exploration walk listeners are assisted by two experienced professionals. Architect and specialist in nature-inclusive design and co-initiator of nextcity.nl, Mathias Lehner, discusses the topic with program director Green Metropolis Harry Boeschoten of Staatsbosbeheer.
