Green infrastructure in liminal streetside spaces : cases from European city cores

Book of proceedings: Annual AESOP Congress, Spaces of Dialog for Places of Dignity, Lisbon, 11-14th July, 2017Human interactions ranging from everyday socialization to celebratory gathering and insurgency are all more or less accommodated along the streets of contemporary Western cities. In the denser quarters of European cities, in particular, the street is the setting along which much of the civic life of urban dwellers is played out. As the pedestrian moves laterally from the roadway curb outwards, a narrow ribbon of quasipublic/private space that emerges from adjacent buildings is usually encountered. In the city core and inner ring suburbs, this transition zone harbours stoops, landings, areaways, pavement gaps at foundation walls, facades, sills and lintels, handrails, stairwells, and other niches that present urban dwellers with tight-but sufficient opportunity for streetside horticulture and related accoutrements. It is this underappreciated transition zone, and the recreational and expressive activities associated with growing plants in it, that is addressed below. I use the term convivial green street to convey an assemblage of features and patterns in a supportive context (street, built form). This setting is enacted by gardeners (residents, merchants, employees) who cultivate plants to a degree sufficient to elicit some sensory appreciation on the part of passers-by and, now and then, to prompt social engagement between cultivators, neighbours, and passers-by who share the street’s frontage.Published versio

On Sustainable|Sustaining City Streets

City streets have long been the subject and context for research [...

On Sustainable|Sustaining City Streets

City streets have long been the subject and context for research [...

Convivial Greenstreets: A Concept for Climate-Responsive Urban Design

This paper presents a conceptual framework for using “convivial greenstreets” (CG) as a resource for climate adaptation. When applied consistently, CG can become an emerging green practice with a positive impact on urban adaptation to climate change: CG may provide localized climate amelioration in ways that support social engagement outdoors. However, as spontaneous phenomena, CG should neither become an academic nor an aesthetic prescriptive tool. How then can CG be used as an active resource for urban adaptation to climate change while avoiding these two potential pitfalls? To explore this question, we present the concept of CG and the ways it can be situated in theoretical urbanism and analogous urban morphologies. We profile the CG inventory corpus and conceptualization that has taken place to date and expand them through a climate-responsive urban design lens. We then discuss how CG and climate-responsive urban design can be brought together while preventing the academization and aestheticizing of the former. This discussion is illustrated with a group of visualizations. We conclude by submitting that climate-responsive urban design and extensive and robust CG practices can co-operate to promote more resilient communities and urban climates. Finally, the conceptual framework herein sets an agenda for future research

Interweaving Computational and Tacit Knowledge to Design Nature-Based Play Networks in Underserved Communities

Children are often the most disadvantaged cohort during miserable situations of natural disaster, economic crisis, and environmental degradation. Meanwhile, children’s play is increasingly controlled, costly, and standardized with engineered structures and surfaces rather than infused with natural processes and organic materials. Access to nature-based playscapes in underserved neighborhoods is extremely limited, impacted by disparities of race, class, and gender. In these contexts, neglected vacant lots and streets and related interstitial spaces can be redesigned as playscapes that support active, engaged, meaningful, and socially interactive play. Our study addresses the ample opportunity to re-engage kids and city nature in underserved neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Methodologically, we balance systemic GIS spatial data approaches with informal and experiential—or tacit—site-based analyses. This mixed-methods approach helps identify local patterns of insecurity, children’s circulation, and natural resource possibilities. Finally, a play network with eight playscape themes is revealed as an emergent pattern that we termed green play infrastructure. These themes provide examples of activities and opportunities for future programs that fit their surrounding context. The mixed-methods approach fills a gap in children’s play literature and illustrates how green play infrastructure can serve as a key strategy in improving children’s lives in disadvantaged neighborhoods

Interweaving Computational and Tacit Knowledge to Design Nature-Based Play Networks in Underserved Communities

Children are often the most disadvantaged cohort during miserable situations of natural disaster, economic crisis, and environmental degradation. Meanwhile, children’s play is increasingly controlled, costly, and standardized with engineered structures and surfaces rather than infused with natural processes and organic materials. Access to nature-based playscapes in underserved neighborhoods is extremely limited, impacted by disparities of race, class, and gender. In these contexts, neglected vacant lots and streets and related interstitial spaces can be redesigned as playscapes that support active, engaged, meaningful, and socially interactive play. Our study addresses the ample opportunity to re-engage kids and city nature in underserved neighborhoods in Philadelphia and Pennsylvania. Methodologically, we balance systemic GIS spatial data approaches with informal and experiential—or tacit—site-based analyses. This mixed-methods approach helps identify local patterns of insecurity, children’s circulation, and natural resource possibilities. Finally, a play network with eight playscape themes is revealed as an emergent pattern that we termed green play infrastructure. These themes provide examples of activities and opportunities for future programs that fit their surrounding context. The mixed-methods approach fills a gap in children’s play literature and illustrates how green play infrastructure can serve as a key strategy in improving children’s lives in disadvantaged neighborhoods

Exploring the Excited Skin: Gigapixel Imaging of Soil Profiles and Landscape Contexts

Soil profile pits are a primary in situ tool in understanding soil genesis and structure. When considered in the context of the landforms that underlie them, and when seen as a small revelation of the ‘excited skin’ that gives rise to plant communities and land uses, profiles can deepen our appreciation of soil’s critical importance in landscape-level processes and sustainability. This paper discusses how gigapixel imaging can assist in visualizing soil profiles and their details online, remote from the site, for both pedagogical and research purposes. It also demonstrates how the GigaPan.org system can serve as a convenient and accessible clearinghouse for linked soil, geological, plant community, and spatial landscape data.</p