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Designing For Urban Green Space
Elizabeth Goodman
University of California, Berkeley
School of Information
Urban green space is not “natural”
San Francisco Historical Photo Collection - San Francisco Public Library
Design is a form of politics
Library of Congress
What we want for green space can tell us a lot about what we want and fear for our cities.
What public visits the park? Whose community is in the garden?
Urban green spaces are a technology
…for what end?Air Trees Eco Boulevard
The benefits of city green space
Public health
Opportunity for exercise
Asthma mitigation
Psychological well-being
Environmental remediation
Storm runoff reduction
Pollution absorption
Wildlife protection
Noise buffering
Neighborhood stability
Building social cohesion to address local concerns
Early education, adult job training
Defining urban green space
“Urban jewels”
Celebrated spaces
Publicly owned and accessible
Defining urban green space
Ordinary small places
Accessed mostly by “the locals”
Defining urban green space
Neighborhood spaces
Privately owned street places
The public can see (and often touch), but doesn’t own them
Defining urban green space
Privately owned private places
Things and places that cannot be seen without invitation
Defining urban green space
Challenges
Awareness
Complexity
Maintenance
Costs
Virginia Department of Forestry
Technologies for urban green spaces
Sensing
Sensors speak “for the plant”
Data feeds distribute responsibility
Botanicalls
Soil sensor accesses expertise in database
Assisting reasoning about environmental conditions
Easy Bloom
Social networks of cultivation
Building a database of local knowledge
Sharing plant varieties
Myfolia.com
Landshare.net
Making unused land available
Creating connections between neighbors
Local mapping
fallenfruit.org
“Every day there is food somewhere going to waste. We encourage you to find it, tend and harvest it. If you own property, plant food on your perimeter.”
Fallenfruit.org
ParkScan.org
Enlisting local volunteersWorking towards accountability and transparency
Journey North
Reporting small events to map climate change
http://www.learner.org/jnorth
Imaging regions
Remote imaging
A tool for making charismatic images
americanforests.org
“The $50 Million Photos”
Framework: Green spaces as a network
Of distributed food production
Farmadelphia - Front Studio
Of ecosystem intervention
PlantSF.com
Of institutions and groups
City of Seattle Food Bank garden plot
Of new modes of sharing, ownership, and access
Guerillagardening.org
In conclusion:Back to the future?
Railroad worker cultivating the small victory garden in the Proviso yard, Chicago
Jack Delano, 1943.
flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress/2179195976
