In Europe, landscape architects are using simple interventions to manipulate the use of forests while prioritising their essential environmental function, writes Zaš Brezar for Landezine.
Landscape architects, Zaš writes, can “bring forests closer to people in a meaningful and careful way. Empowering bonds between landscapes and people is one of the most important tasks of our profession. We maintain what we appreciate.”
Strengthening the existing, and designing by maintenance rather than from scratch, is central to designing forests with conservation and care in mind, they say.
In Strandskogen Arninge Ullna, a park in Sweden, landscape architects maintained “existing ambiences” by choreographing visitors’ movement through the dense riparian forest on elevated walkways.
“This way, they have minimised the impact of people staying in the woods and enabled them to visit the site in times of higher waters.”
Brezar says practices such as curating light by thinning foliage in certain areas and adding clearings on the forest floor for dynamic use can make them more liveable and accessible for the community.
Simple interventions, they say, can be effective when working with a low budget. For example, for the Ika Meditation Spot project in a Transylvanian pine forest in Romania, Batlab Architects and Studio Nomad “marked dramatic views and exciting spots” by simply installing platforms to encourage “observation of the natural processes.”
Many of Sydney’s former high streets, Price suggests, have been compromised by Covid-19, with funding promises “yet to have measurable impacts.”
“Compromised” and “successful” high streets have been judged and measured through physical characteristics – such as speed limits, footpath width, clearways and bike lanes – in a recent report by the Committee for Sydney, ‘Mapping Sydney’s High Streets’.
‘Surry Hills envy’ is an expression describing the inner-city suburb’s village-like street appeal – with a high street rated ‘great’ in the Committee for Sydney report. Says Price: “Where else can you get beers on a verandah, ice creams, about-to-flower pot plants and take your grandchild to a gorgeous little park all within 100 metres?”
Peter Phibbs, former chair of urban planning and policy at the University of Sydney, also suggests looking to Melbourne’s high streets as a role model. “As a cohort, they are truckloads better than anything we have in Sydney.”
Phibbs points to Sydney’s preference for large shopping malls, which, he suggests, “tend to draw customers away from the high streets.”
In the Committee for Sydney report, co-author John Richardson from COX Architecture suggests councils take measures to revitalise high streets including “slowing down traffic, widening footpaths, making the high street a good place to be a pedestrian, to wield a pram, to ride a bike.”
The Street Furniture Australia factory, in Regents Park, Western Sydney, is both a manufacturing hub and R&D studio for our Australian-designed and made street furniture products. We run fun and informative group events for customers throughout the year, to share how products are designed, tested and built, and the latest products and projects. Director of Tract Julie Lee said: “It was a great opportunity for our team to look behind the scenes and understand the innovation, research and climate positive outcomes Street Furniture Australia is focusing on. Thank you for having us!” Place Design Group Associate, Liam Isaksen, said: “The factory tour is a fun experience to learn about the design and manufacturing process of public furniture we use in landscape architecture design. Seeing the work behind the scenes and …
Did you catch these most-read case studies, furnishing tips, new product announcements and special industry events in your StreetChat updates in 2023? Each month our StreetChat enewsletter publishes new projects, products and trends from the public domain; subscribe to receive it in your inbox. 10. Which design firm can see Longhorn Cattle from their office window? 2 countries. 9 cities. 300 landscape architects. Street Furniture Australia and USA partner Spruce & Gander visited offices in Australia and Texas. There were key similarities and some notable standouts. 9. Jazz at The Mint: Product and Book Launch Sydney landscape architects gathered at the iconic Mint Courtyard to launch a design book by our founding directors Darrel Conybeare and Bill Morrison, and expansions to the Linea collection. 8. 2023 Good Cause Giveaway goes to …
Street Furniture Australia has designed and built prototype charging stands as part of a Transport for NSW program to deliver free phone chargers at 15 Sydney train stations. Developed by Street Furniture Australia’s inhouse industrial designers in collaboration with Transport for NSW, the prototypes offer wireless, USB-A and USB-C charging, and can power 7 devices at once. They were built at the Street Furniture Australia factory in Western Sydney. Two Power Spots are now installed at Liverpool and Campbelltown stations. The $1 million Power Spots Project rollout to 15 transport hubs including Bankstown, Hurstville, Lidcombe, Penrith, Wynyard, Central, Town Hall and Bondi Junction will be completed by late 2024. NSW Transport Minister Jo Haylen said the Power Spots provide peace of mind: “In the modern world, our phones are our …
How our cities work – essential lessons from lockdown: By Matt Wade New research on the demographics of essential workers in Australia’s largest cities casts a stark light on geographic and gender inequalities, writes Matt Wade for the Sydney Morning Herald. Essential workers are employed “across health and social services, education, freight and delivery, transport, police and emergency services, logistics, construction and some retail,” and make up 45% of the workforce in Australian capital cities. They are exposed to greater risk of contracting Covid-19 in their workplaces, and through travelling to work. According to a study by consultancy SGS Economics and Planning, most essential workers in Sydney and Melbourne live in outer metropolitan growth areas where housing is more affordable – these regions also recorded a high share of infections …
Cities’ answer to sprawl? Go wild: ‘Rewilding,’ “…the growing global trend of introducing nature back into cities” has the capacity to “help bolster climate resilience, biodiversity, even moods,” writes Chris Malloy in Cities’ Answer to Sprawl? Go Wild. “Globally, past urban planning decisions like the prioritisation of the car have given rise to cities that, but for scattered parks, tend to be divorced from nature.” However, “growing urban sprawl heightens the need to build zones to manage runoff and temperatures and preserve biodiversity.” In the face of the many consequences of rapid urbanisation and climate change including “loss of biodiversity, urban heat islands, climate vulnerability, and human psychological changes,” rewilding could impact the health of our cities. As amorphous spaces, Malloy says that “most definitions agree that rewilded spaces should …
Students could have a field day with more outdoor learning: “Australian students typically spend over 10,000 hours during their adolescence in schools” – despite this, the schoolyard hasn’t traditionally been viewed as a space to improve student wellbeing, writes Gweneth Leigh for the Sydney Morning Herald. The return to classrooms in the wake of COVID-19 has prompted an urgent need for schools around the world to create learning spaces that are well-ventilated and socially distanced. Outdoor learning has proven to be an innovative and simple answer to this dilemma. “For some this meant clustering picnic tables together, building shade structures, adding trees, gardens, even yoga circles and mountain bike trails”- varied, resourceful outdoor classrooms have had a distinctively positive impact, they report. Studies have revealed that greening school grounds helps …
