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Connecting Cities and Nature

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How can integrating nature into urban environments enhance the well-being of city dwellers and contribute to more sustainable cities? Explore this concept through the lens of Biophilic Cities, which utilizes a network of global cities, scholars, and advocates to reveal the profound impacts of nature in urban areas on human health and urban resilience.

Image courtesy of interviewee. November 15, 2024

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This video discusses the importance of nature in urban environments, emphasizing the concept of biophilia, which is our innate desire to connect with the natural world. It presents evidence that being around nature enhances cognitive abilities, reduces anxiety and stress, and promotes generosity and cooperation among humans.

The speaker advocates for "biophilic urbanism," where nature is integrated throughout cities, not just as a one-time visit, but as a daily part of life, highlighting the need for trees, birds, and other natural elements to be present in urban environments.

This video also addresses urban design and how to make cities friendlier to wildlife, including birds. It mentions practical strategies like using bird-safe glass in buildings and creating green rooftops to provide habitats for birds, and cites the decline in bird populations due to urbanization. The speaker reflects on personal experiences with nature and discusses approaches taken by various cities to enhance their natural landscapes, like Singapore’s planning policies to increase greenery.

Rewilding urban spaces is presented as an essential agenda, encouraging the return of wildlife to city areas, citing successful examples such as native wetlands in Perth. The speaker acknowledges the challenges and fears related to integrating wildness in cities but insists that nature is essential for improving urban life quality.

Furthermore, the text highlights case studies from different cities, illustrating successful biophilic initiatives. Ultimately, it argues that embracing nature in cities can enhance well-being, increase life quality, and inspire awe and wonder in urban living.

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Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Biophilia and Human Connection to Nature**: The video emphasizes the concept of biophilia, which suggests that humans have an inherent desire to connect with nature due to our evolutionary history. Presence in nature is shown to enhance cognitive abilities, reduce anxiety, and improve overall well-being.

2. **Integration of Nature in Urban Design**: Advocating for biophilic urbanism, the video argues that cities should infuse nature into daily life, rather than treating it as an occasional destination. This integration includes having accessible green spaces, trees, birds, and other natural elements in urban environments.

3. **Rewilding and Ecological Connectivity**: The concept of rewilding city spaces is explored, highlighting the importance of creating habitats for wildlife, such as birds and other animals, within urban areas. This involves designing urban spaces that accommodate and protect native species.

4. **Urban Infrastructure and Climate Resilience**: The video discusses how trees and natural elements serve as crucial infrastructure for cities, particularly in addressing urban heat and climate change impacts. Green spaces and tree canopies provide cooling effects and improve urban resilience.

5. **Examples of Successful Biophilic Cities**: The video references several cities, including Singapore and Edmonton, showcasing innovative strategies for integrating nature into urban planning. These examples illustrate how policies and design can enhance ecological connectivity, improve mental health, and foster community engagement with natural environments.

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Here are some key quotes extracted from the video:

1. **Biophilia and Connection to Nature**:
- “We have this innate desire to connect and affiliate with nature.”
- “We have a lot of evidence that in the presence of nature, our cognitive abilities are enhanced, our anxiety and stress levels go down.”

2. **Nature in Urban Settings**:
- “Nature has to be all around us in cities. We have to be immersed in nature.”
- “Nature is not something just to be visited once or twice a year on a holiday. It has to be integrated into our daily lives.”

3. **Multisensory Experiences with Nature**:
- “It can be everything from seeing trees through a window... It’s multisensory, of course.”

4. **Importance of Urban Trees**:
- “We want more trees... because that's really essential infrastructure for cooling cities as we're facing rising urban heat.”

5. **Birds and Mental Health**:
- “I want to live in a city where I can see and hear birds... we have all kinds of evidence about the mental health benefits of birds.”

6. **Urban Design for Wildlife**:
- “We can reimagine the city as a habitat for birds and humans.”
- “At least in the U.S., about a billion birds are killed each year from striking glass of buildings.”

7. **Rewilding Cities**:
- “Rewilding is a really important part of our vision.”
- “There are lots of ways in which it can be wild... it can be a tiny forest planted in the city.”

8. **Citizen Involvement and Community**:
- “So many people have enjoyed that space [wetland], and it's been such a wonderful example of how you can take a highly urbanized city and return it back to nature.”

9. **Complex Relationship with Nature**:
- “Not everybody is happy... about the return of coyotes to the city,” reflecting societal challenges.
- “There’s a kind of biphobia... fear of the unknown perhaps.”

10. **Examples of Biophilic Cities**:
- “Singapore... has recently changed its motto to ‘city in nature’.”
- “Cities like Edmonton have emphasized ecological connectivity in their design and planning.”

11. **Nature as Essential**:
- “I would wanna change that way of thinking and say that nature is absolutely essential.”
- “The quality of our lives will be so much better... our lives will be more interesting and more awe-inspiring.”

These quotes highlight the central themes of the video: the importance of nature for human well-being, the integration of nature into urban environments, the multisensory experiences nature provides, and the role of community and design in promoting biophilic principles.

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Nature is really important to us.

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Of course, as human beings, we know the concept of biophilia

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is based on the idea that we carry with us,

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our ancient brains, that we have co-evolved

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with the natural world,

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and that we have this innate desire to connect

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and affiliate with, with nature.

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And we have a lot of evidence growing, body of evidence

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that we are in the presence of nature.

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Uh, we are cognitive abilities are enhanced, our anxiety,

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our stress levels go down.

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Uh, we feel better as even evidence that we're more likely

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to be gener generous and cooperative,

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and more likely to be better human beings, actually,

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when we have nature around us.

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So, we believe in, in the area of biophilic urbanism

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or biophilic cities, this, it's a new vision for

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what cities can be.

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And we believe that nature has

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to be all around us in cities.

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We have to be immersed in nature.

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Nature is not something just to be visited once

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or twice a year on a holiday.

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It has to be, integrated into our daily, lives,

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our hourly lives, really.

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And that means having trees and birds and birdsong and

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and nature everywhere around us where we live

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and work in cities, and can certainly be subtle.

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And, it can be everything from,

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from seeing trees through a window.

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It can, can be a, a breeze that you feel it can be,

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it's multisensory, of course.

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So it's things that you, might touch during the course

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of your, your day or, or smell or hear again.

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Uh, so, so, yes.

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Um, it's, it, a lot of it, this is about paying attention

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to the nature that that's already around us in, in cities.

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But, but we need to actively, encourage that nature,

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protect what we have and,

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and grow, more trees in nature

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and birds, around us in cities.

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It's a different way of thinking about, about cities.

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Um, we often think about the usual forms of, design

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and construction and the usual kinds of infrastructure

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that cities need, and roads and sewer lines and power lines,

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and all those things that, that make urban life possible.

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But we increasingly realize that we need that nature.

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Nature does so many things, for us.

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And, trees, especially, for example,

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we, we want more trees.

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We want, we wanna expand our canopy in large part

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because that's really essential infrastructure

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for cooling cities as we're facing rising urban heat,

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around the world.

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And we're facing the impacts of, of climate change.

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Um, those trees, those, that tree canopy does

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so many things, in fact for us.

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So it's really, redefining the kinds of things we think

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of as a central infrastructure in a, in a city.

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So I wanna live in a city where I can see and hear birds,

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and we have all kinds of evidence about the mental health

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benefits of birds.

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Um, so birds. I, I want to live a delightful, you know, a,

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a life of delight in a city with, lots

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of wonderful natural sounds, from all kinds

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of nature, but birds especially are important to me.

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I grew up, watching birds, listening to birds.

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I lived, I grew up in, in a city, a actually,

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but very much surrounded by trees and forest.

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And the, the trees were my friends,

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but the birds were my friends as well.

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I had parents who were interested in this, a mom

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who very much enjoyed birds

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and helped me to identify species of birds.

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And I, I can't say that I am a, a birder necessarily,

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but I am a lifelong, bird lover.

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And over the years, have written a lot about how we can,

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design cities, to better accommodate birds,

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to make them safe places for birds,

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to incorporate habitat for birds.

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And as you say, it, it is, a lot of it has

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to do with urban design.

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So we know, for example, that a,

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at least in the US about a billion birds are killed each

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year from striking glass of, buildings.

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Uh, birds don't see glass

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as a barrier in the same way that we do.

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And so there, are a lot of cities now increasingly,

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that are, requiring bird safe, glass

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and bird safe facades, bird face, safe, buildings.

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And that means creating, buildings, glass that has,

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fritted pattern

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or something that, that actually makes

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that glass, visible.

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So in New York City now, there's a, a law, local law, 15

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that requires the first 75 feet

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of the building from ground level up, has to be, has

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to include, bird safe materials and bird safe glass.

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So, there, there are lots of urban design implications.

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Uh, here. We know that green rooftops,

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can increasingly be designed in ways

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that provide habitat for, for birds.

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So we can kind of reimagine the city as a habitat

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for birds and humans.

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And, and, you know, we, that's, that's part of what I,

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part of what I, defines a good city.

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For me, we are often talking about the concept of wildness.

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So often we think of wildness.

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We, we think of wilderness, right?

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At least in the American context.

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We have very famous wilderness Act of 1964.

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It creates a, a network of protected wilderness areas

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around, around the country.

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Our vision of what wilderness is, is this place

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that's far away from a city.

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It's a place where we go to visit.

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No, humans live there in some way, it's pristine,

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but we know it, it it's not really pristine

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and it's been altered.

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It's, it's, you know, shown it, it's been impacted

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by human alteration

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or human in for humans, for a long time.

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But, but that's really not the right way

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to think about a city.

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A city can't really have that kind of wilderness,

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but there are lots of ways in which it can be wild.

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So, that, that certainly means rewilding.

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It means thinking about the spaces where,

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a tiny forest might, might be planted, a Milwaukee forest

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or, thinking about again, birds

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or other, other kinds of animals that exude wildness.

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In, in American cities, we have the phenomenon of coyotes

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coming back into the city.

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We have cities like Los Angeles, where they're beginning

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to make room for the return of mountain lions,

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and making connections across highways and,

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and designing spaces in a way that allows that,

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that those wild animals to return back to those spaces

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and in, and live in and amongst us.

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So, there is a huge agenda for rewilding and cities.

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It could be that green rooftop that we talked about,

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rewilding, that that space could be a backyard, it could be,

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a space in the middle of a city

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that could be returned to nature.

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We have an example from our network of a wetland, a,

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a a traditional, water feature in the center

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of a city, Perth and Western Australia

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that has been converted actually to now what is a,

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a wild native biodiverse wetland in the middle of the city.

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So it's, it's moved, shifted from what was a

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highly energy intensive, chlorinated, biologically sterile,

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place to what is now a place

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where there are abundant birds and dragonflies and,

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and, you know, the frogs and the, and the sounds

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and the, all the wildness that goes along with the return

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of those things to cities.

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So rewilding is a really important part of our vision.

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It has, and that particular case is interesting

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because there is now a redevelopment plan

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underway in the center of Perth.

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And I'm, I'm told from my colleagues that there

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have been proposals to take out the wetland, and,

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and yet so many people have enjoyed that space.

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And it's been such a wonderful example of

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how you can take a small, a little piece of, of a,

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of a highly urbanized city and,

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and return it back to nature.

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So, the story, it's still in play.

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We don't know what will happen to that wetland,

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but I I think there are a lot of citizens there

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who are going to, going to be coming to its defense.

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But you're, you, you raise a good question.

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Is everybody going to embrace this vision of a wild city?

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Um, not everybody is happy, for example, about the return of

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coyotes, to, to, to the city.

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And, just recently we've had, examples of conflicts

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between coyotes, coyotes that have, have,

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been growling and, and some

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Cases have bitten hu humans in cities.

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There's a, there's a fear,

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there's a worry about the danger of certain,

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certain kinds of nature.

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Generally speaking, there's a kind of biphobia I think

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that a lot of urbanites who, who have not been

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around much nature, fear of the unknown perhaps.

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So there are some, those, those kinds

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of challenges that we have to face.

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Um, as well, we have a network that now consists

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of 32 partner cities in our biophilic cities network.

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And I'd love for, everyone to go

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and visit our website, biophilic cities.org.

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There are case studies.

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Um, every part,

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every city in our network has their own curated, page.

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So there are wonderful things going on in every place,

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every city, and each city has its own particular

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opportunities, depending on its ecology.

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Its, where, where it is in the world,

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and the political support and, and,

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and other, other, conditions that, that, that sort of,

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you know, dictate what, what's possible there.

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So each city's doing something a little bit differently.

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Um, San Francisco, for example,

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has had this long history of creatively repurposing spaces.

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Um, the idea of a parklet, for example,

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a tiny little park that's created from two

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or three on street parking spaces for cars,

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that's really interesting.

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And actually, has a very interesting program called the,

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street parks where they're taking leftover spaces,

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owned by the city, some of them in the, in the median strip

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between two roads

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and actually giving them back to communities to design

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and plan small parks.

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That's really interesting.

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Another example from San Francisco is, an initiative

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to actually allow,

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homeowners allow neighbor neighborhoods

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to actually take up pavement.

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Uh, there's a sidewalk, garden permit that,

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that you can get, basically lets you go, you know, go out

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and jackhammer that sidewalk, take up the hard surface

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and plant, flowers and plant, greenery nature.

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Um, a lot of other wonderful cities.

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Singapore, city

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and city state has been one

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of our partner cities from the beginning.

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That is a city that has called itself a

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garden city for many years.

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It's more recently changed its motto to city

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and a garden, which seems like a small change.

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It's really quite profound, the idea that we don't just,

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have a few places, a few gardens, a few forests,

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a few parks in the city that we go to visit,

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but rather we think of the whole city as a park,

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as a garden, as a forest.

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Um, and so now they've even shifted their motto from that,

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from, a city in a garden to a city in nature,

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because they're having a, a kind of debate about whether,

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whether the word garden is, something that,

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makes us think about wildness in the way

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that we just talked about it.

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So Singapore has a, a number of wonderful policies.

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There's something called the landscape replacement policy,

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which is a planning, requirement.

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So if you build a, a building in Singapore's, a very,

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a vertical city, right?

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Lots of high rise buildings.

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You build a city, you have to replace the,

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at least the nature you've lost at, at the ground level

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with nature in the vertical realm.

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So sky parks and green rooftops and,

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and, na, you know, green walls.

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And, and so Singapore has become this pioneer

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of all the kind of different creative ways

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that you can design nature into that, the form

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and structure of that, of that, building.

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So there are, projects, like the

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downtown o Asia, hotel,

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where in fact the entire exterior of the building, is,

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is a growing space.

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14 different varieties of flowering vines.

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Something is always flowering every, every time of the year.

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There's some something that's, that's blooming the idea

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of a, of a building that we designed to bloom.

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And it, and it becomes habitat, habitat for birds

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and squirrels and other, other, critters.

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So, so we're very inspired by, Singapore, a lot

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of other things that the city, that city,

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city state is, is doing.

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Um, Edmonton Canada would be another wonderful,

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example here, a city

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that has emphasized ecological connectivity,

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in its design and, and planning.

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So actually looking at the city through the perspective

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of a bird, what would a, what would a bird think of Edmonton

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as it flies through, that, that city,

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and they've been using techniques like circuit scape

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modeling, this idea of kind of taking, ideas from, from

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electric circuits, thinking the city as a, as a place where,

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where you might have dis disconnection.

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So is, are there places

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where the tree canopy doesn't connect?

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And, and it's difficult for birds to fly through

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or across the city.

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So in, in Edmonton, whenever a road is built or,

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or a major project is, is, designed, there are these,

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wildlife passages that have

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to be integrated into those designs.

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So there are now more than 35 of them in the city

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of Edmonton.

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And one of the things

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that they didn't necessarily expect it,

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but they've seen a, a dramatic drop in car, wildlife, car,

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collisions as a result of having this network of,

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wildlife connections or wildlife passages.

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I think part of it is just imagining what a city could be.

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And I, I think our expectations are sometimes too low.

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And we, again, we think that that nature is something

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Optional. It's something,

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nice to have, but not essential.

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And I, I would, I would wanna change that way of thinking

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and say that there's so many,

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ways our li our lives would be enhanced,

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and that nature is, is not something

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optional, absolutely essential.

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And, and we can make the argument by, by pointing

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to the evidence and looking at the, the health outcomes.

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Um, a new study, coming out of Louisville,

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Kentucky here, where they've planted 9,000 trees

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around the city, and there, there are very clear

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positive health Im impacts life expectancy, improvements,

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all, all kinds of ways in which our, our, our health is, is,

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enhanced and improved.

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Our wellbeing is enhanced by having that nature.

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But I'd, I'd even go further

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and say that the quality

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of our lives will be so much better.

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Our lives will be more, more interesting.

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Um, and, there, there will be more, awe,

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awe and wonder and, and magic and delight.

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Actually, I've, I've been saying for many years

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that we've got to,

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embrace maybe different language in talking about cities,

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we're not often talking about the magic of cities

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or, the ways in which, urban design

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and planning help to invoke feelings of, of awe.

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Um, those are the things that make our lives worth living

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and things that make life really, wonderful, right?

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That, and cities, are, we often bemoan the, the, the,

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the noise and the harried life, li lives

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and lifestyles of cities and,

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and just the, all the kind

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of negatives connected with cities.

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But it doesn't, doesn't have to be that way at all.

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And nature has, this is this mat really wonderful elixir

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that can, change many of those, many

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of those conditions.

The Vital Connection: Embracing Nature in Urban Life

00:00:00 - Nature is really important to us. Of course, as human beings, we know the concept of biophilia is based on the idea that we carry with us, our ancient brains, that we have co-evolved with the natural world, and that we have this innate desire to connect and affiliate with, with nature. And we have a lot of evidence growing, body of evidence that we are in the presence of nature. we are cognitive abilities are enhanced, our anxiety, our stress levels go down. we feel better as even evidence that we're more likely

00:00:36 - and more likely to be better human beings, actually, when we have nature around us. So, we believe in, in the area of biophilic urbanism or biophilic cities, this, it's a new vision for what cities can be. And we believe that nature has to be all around us in cities. We have to be immersed in nature. Nature is not something just to be visited once or twice a year on a holiday. It has to be, integrated into our daily, lives,

00:01:06 - And that means having trees and birds and birdsong and and nature everywhere around us where we live and work in cities, and can certainly be subtle. And, it can be everything from, from seeing trees through a window. It can, can be a, a breeze that you feel it can be, it's multisensory, of course. So it's things that you, might touch during the course of your, your day or, or smell or hear again.

Reimagining Urban Spaces: Integrating Nature for Health and Well-being

00:01:36 - it's, it, a lot of it, this is about paying attention to the nature that that's already around us in, in cities. But, but we need to actively, encourage that nature, protect what we have and, and grow, more trees in nature and birds, around us in cities. It's a different way of thinking about, about cities. we often think about the usual forms of, design and construction and the usual kinds of infrastructure that cities need, and roads and sewer lines and power lines,

00:02:12 - But we increasingly realize that we need that nature. Nature does so many things, for us. And, trees, especially, for example, we, we want more trees. We want, we wanna expand our canopy in large part because that's really essential infrastructure for cooling cities as we're facing rising urban heat, around the world. And we're facing the impacts of, of climate change. those trees, those, that tree canopy does

00:02:43 - So it's really, redefining the kinds of things we think of as a central infrastructure in a, in a city. So I wanna live in a city where I can see and hear birds, and we have all kinds of evidence about the mental health benefits of birds. so birds. I, I want to live a delightful, you know, a, a life of delight in a city with, lots of wonderful natural sounds, from all kinds

Growing Up with Nature: The Importance of Birds in Urban Design

00:03:14 - I grew up, watching birds, listening to birds. I lived, I grew up in, in a city, a actually, but very much surrounded by trees and forest. And the, the trees were my friends, but the birds were my friends as well. I had parents who were interested in this, a mom who very much enjoyed birds and helped me to identify species of birds. And I, I can't say that I am a, a birder necessarily,

00:03:45 - And over the years, have written a lot about how we can, design cities, to better accommodate birds, to make them safe places for birds, to incorporate habitat for birds. And as you say, it, it is, a lot of it has to do with urban design. So we know, for example, that a, at least in the US about a billion birds are killed each year from striking glass of, buildings. birds don't see glass

00:04:15 - And so there, are a lot of cities now increasingly, that are, requiring bird safe, glass and bird safe facades, bird face, safe, buildings. And that means creating, buildings, glass that has, fritted pattern or something that, that actually makes that glass, visible. So in New York City now, there's a, a law, local law, 15 that requires the first 75 feet of the building from ground level up, has to be, has

Reimagining Urban Spaces: Integrating Nature and Wildness

00:04:51 - So, there, there are lots of urban design implications. here. We know that green rooftops, can increasingly be designed in ways that provide habitat for, for birds. So we can kind of reimagine the city as a habitat for birds and humans. And, and, you know, we, that's, that's part of what I, part of what I, defines a good city. For me, we are often talking about the concept of wildness.

00:05:22 - We, we think of wilderness, right? At least in the American context. We have very famous wilderness Act of 1964. It creates a, a network of protected wilderness areas around, around the country. Our vision of what wilderness is, is this place that's far away from a city. It's a place where we go to visit. No, humans live there in some way, it's pristine, but we know it, it it's not really pristine and it's been altered. It's, it's, you know, shown it, it's been impacted

00:05:53 - or human in for humans, for a long time. But, but that's really not the right way to think about a city. A city can't really have that kind of wilderness, but there are lots of ways in which it can be wild. So, that, that certainly means rewilding. It means thinking about the spaces where, a tiny forest might, might be planted, a Milwaukee forest or, thinking about again, birds or other, other kinds of animals that exude wildness.

Rewilding Urban Spaces: Embracing Nature in Cities

00:06:26 - coming back into the city. We have cities like Los Angeles, where they're beginning to make room for the return of mountain lions, and making connections across highways and, and designing spaces in a way that allows that, that those wild animals to return back to those spaces and in, and live in and amongst us. So, there is a huge agenda for rewilding and cities. It could be that green rooftop that we talked about,

00:06:59 - a space in the middle of a city that could be returned to nature. We have an example from our network of a wetland, a, a a traditional, water feature in the center of a city, Perth and Western Australia that has been converted actually to now what is a, a wild native biodiverse wetland in the middle of the city. So it's, it's moved, shifted from what was a

00:07:33 - place to what is now a place where there are abundant birds and dragonflies and, and, you know, the frogs and the, and the sounds and the, all the wildness that goes along with the return of those things to cities. So rewilding is a really important part of our vision. It has, and that particular case is interesting because there is now a redevelopment plan

Defending Urban Wetlands and Embracing Nature's Wildness

00:08:00 - And I'm, I'm told from my colleagues that there have been proposals to take out the wetland, and, and yet so many people have enjoyed that space. And it's been such a wonderful example of how you can take a small, a little piece of, of a, of a highly urbanized city and, and return it back to nature. So, the story, it's still in play. We don't know what will happen to that wetland, but I I think there are a lot of citizens there who are going to, going to be coming to its defense.

00:08:33 - Is everybody going to embrace this vision of a wild city? not everybody is happy, for example, about the return of coyotes, to, to, to the city. And, just recently we've had, examples of conflicts between coyotes, coyotes that have, have, been growling and, and some Cases have bitten hu humans in cities. There's a, there's a fear, there's a worry about the danger of certain,

00:09:03 - Generally speaking, there's a kind of biphobia I think that a lot of urbanites who, who have not been around much nature, fear of the unknown perhaps. So there are some, those, those kinds of challenges that we have to face. as well, we have a network that now consists of 32 partner cities in our biophilic cities network. And I'd love for, everyone to go and visit our website, biophilic cities.org. There are case studies.

Creative Urban Greening Initiatives

00:09:33 - every city in our network has their own curated, page. So there are wonderful things going on in every place, every city, and each city has its own particular opportunities, depending on its ecology. Its, where, where it is in the world, and the political support and, and, and other, other, conditions that, that, that sort of, you know, dictate what, what's possible there. So each city's doing something a little bit differently.

00:10:05 - has had this long history of creatively repurposing spaces. the idea of a parklet, for example, a tiny little park that's created from two or three on street parking spaces for cars, that's really interesting. And actually, has a very interesting program called the, street parks where they're taking leftover spaces, owned by the city, some of them in the, in the median strip between two roads

00:10:37 - and plan small parks. That's really interesting. Another example from San Francisco is, an initiative to actually allow, homeowners allow neighbor neighborhoods to actually take up pavement. there's a sidewalk, garden permit that, that you can get, basically lets you go, you know, go out and jackhammer that sidewalk, take up the hard surface and plant, flowers and plant, greenery nature.

Singapore: A Vision of Urban Nature

00:11:07 - Singapore, city and city state has been one of our partner cities from the beginning. That is a city that has called itself a garden city for many years. It's more recently changed its motto to city and a garden, which seems like a small change. It's really quite profound, the idea that we don't just, have a few places, a few gardens, a few forests, a few parks in the city that we go to visit, but rather we think of the whole city as a park,

00:11:38 - and so now they've even shifted their motto from that, from, a city in a garden to a city in nature, because they're having a, a kind of debate about whether, whether the word garden is, something that, makes us think about wildness in the way that we just talked about it. So Singapore has a, a number of wonderful policies. There's something called the landscape replacement policy, which is a planning, requirement.

00:12:10 - a vertical city, right? Lots of high rise buildings. You build a city, you have to replace the, at least the nature you've lost at, at the ground level with nature in the vertical realm. So sky parks and green rooftops and, and, na, you know, green walls. And, and so Singapore has become this pioneer of all the kind of different creative ways that you can design nature into that, the form

Urban Nature: Integrating Ecology into City Design

00:12:40 - So there are, projects, like the downtown o Asia, hotel, where in fact the entire exterior of the building, is, is a growing space. 14 different varieties of flowering vines. Something is always flowering every, every time of the year. There's some something that's, that's blooming the idea of a, of a building that we designed to bloom. And it, and it becomes habitat, habitat for birds

00:13:12 - So, so we're very inspired by, Singapore, a lot of other things that the city, that city, city state is, is doing. Edmonton Canada would be another wonderful, example here, a city that has emphasized ecological connectivity, in its design and, and planning. So actually looking at the city through the perspective of a bird, what would a, what would a bird think of Edmonton as it flies through, that, that city,

00:13:43 - modeling, this idea of kind of taking, ideas from, from electric circuits, thinking the city as a, as a place where, where you might have dis disconnection. So is, are there places where the tree canopy doesn't connect? And, and it's difficult for birds to fly through or across the city. So in, in Edmonton, whenever a road is built or, or a major project is, is, designed, there are these,

Reimagining Urban Spaces: Integrating Nature for Health and Safety

00:14:13 - to be integrated into those designs. So there are now more than 35 of them in the city of Edmonton. And one of the things that they didn't necessarily expect it, but they've seen a, a dramatic drop in car, wildlife, car, collisions as a result of having this network of, wildlife connections or wildlife passages. I think part of it is just imagining what a city could be.

00:14:46 - And we, again, we think that that nature is something Optional. It's something, nice to have, but not essential. And I, I would, I would wanna change that way of thinking and say that there's so many, ways our li our lives would be enhanced, and that nature is, is not something optional, absolutely essential. And, and we can make the argument by, by pointing to the evidence and looking at the, the health outcomes.

00:15:17 - Kentucky here, where they've planted 9,000 trees around the city, and there, there are very clear positive health Im impacts life expectancy, improvements, all, all kinds of ways in which our, our, our health is, is, enhanced and improved. Our wellbeing is enhanced by having that nature. But I'd, I'd even go further and say that the quality of our lives will be so much better. Our lives will be more, more interesting. and, there, there will be more, awe,

Embracing Nature's Magic in Urban Life

00:15:52 - Actually, I've, I've been saying for many years that we've got to, embrace maybe different language in talking about cities, we're not often talking about the magic of cities or, the ways in which, urban design and planning help to invoke feelings of, of awe. those are the things that make our lives worth living and things that make life really, wonderful, right? That, and cities, are, we often bemoan the, the, the,

00:16:42 - and lifestyles of cities and, and just the, all the kind of negatives connected with cities. But it doesn't, doesn't have to be that way at all. And nature has, this is this mat really wonderful elixir that can, change many of those, many of those conditions.

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