thank you I want to promote landscape
and nature as the key foundation to the
future of city planning I want to really
make this the sort of focus for how we
think about the design planning and
management of our cities because I think
we’re missing a huge trick in the way
we’ve thinking about it in the next by
2050 the world population is going to
grow by two and a half billion on top of
the seven point seven billion we have at
the moment where there’s people going to
live what sort of places that we want to
live in
we think of contemporary cities as quite
dysfunctional actually they’re polluting
the transport systems and not terribly
brilliant they’re using global resources
in a really weird way so I think we’ve
already got to sort of rethink about how
we how we think about and strategize the
way you think about cities and I think
we can go back to you know we are beings
of nature we should remember that
actually the natural world is actually
our origins we came from forests we came
from savannas we grew up in these sort
of places and we’ve totally lost that in
the way we think about that the way we
think about city planning and design and
so when we get into thinking about
landscape cities the idea that you know
the landscape becomes a preeminent sort
of thing way of thinking about it what
do we need to put into the equation for
me the color green is really important
it’s a bit corny green landscape all
those sort of things but actually
there’s some real science behind it
actually in the presence of green the
pituitary gland is stimulated which
enhances your levels of histamine and
basically you start to become calm
that’s a sort of there’s a science to
that similarly the visual spectrum
Green is sits right at the middle it’s
the biggest part of the visual spectrum
and it’s it’s were human visual
perception is most acute it’s why they
use green in sunlight of course is a
sort of a once again there’s a science
to that Green is the most dominant color
in nature
it’s you know the idea of chlorophyll
and photosynthesis and the sort of basic
life source for us all is derived from
green so we should be green we should
enhance green in the way we recreate our
environments and clearly also the idea
of nature and it’s obvious but you know
we all feel better in nature and there’s
a scientist he started to prove that
actually there’s many reasons for that
actually we go outside there are certain
bacteria and microorganisms that become
part of our microbiome which make us
happier
so actually specific bacteria that they
find that actually do that being in
nature being part of a green environment
reduces stress it improves mental health
it improves the way we think about
things it improves creativity all of
this research there to show this and yet
you know still in the way we think about
cities by and large landscape is put to
one side Green is put to one side it’s
changing though because of this and
because we need to put this front and
center into the into the world so
landscape cities to me is a very
exciting concepts and it’s not a new one
basically I mean place like Edinburgh
where you have a very profound sort of
foundation built on the landscape built
on this or volcanic landscape of the the
crags and where the castle sits really
powerful sort of sense of work in a
historic city landscape city another one
which is more current his Singapore
Singapore has actually taken the idea of
landscape and and and greening to the
nth degree they now define their whole
identity as a city in a garden
overriding everything there are policies
that drive the greening of the city
every building has to replace its
footprints with at least 100 percent
green space many many policies go all
the way through the way they think about
it and and we’ve been very lucky as
myself as I was give Arctic to to work
in that place on amazing project called
guns by the bay the sort of super trees
which had been grabbed as this sort of
symbol of the city in a garden it’s
about the future
there’s a future perspective here it’s
about how do we rethink the identity of
our place how do we promote our a sense
of management of the resources we have
how do we how do we bring people
together using landscape to create
amazing destinations amazing places to
gather and I think you know for me
that’s been a great sort of lesson in
terms of the power of landscape and
nature in cities to drive things forward
and obviously in London they’re very
excited about this as well the National
Park City has been promoted you know
it’s going to be happening next year
imagine the whole of London as a
national park it’s a really exciting
concept because it places the green
space and the underwater and the
networks and all those things that go
with it the nature as a sort of driving
lifeblood of the city and I think that’s
really something that we can do but
actually bath in what many ways is the
sort of definitive landscape city for me
it’s always a fantastic reference point
when I’m designing because it actually
has this combination of architecture and
landscape and nature absolutely in plain
sight for everybody and it’s been around
you know this sort of idea that there’s
this beautiful sort of balance of
landscape and architecture and living in
Bath has been around for many many years
and I think it sort of gives us a sort
of a real chance to start to celebrate
the city yes we are a world heritage
site it’s one of only two major world
heritage sites that are entire cities
Martha is unique because its citation
includes the landscape you know this is
something we should celebrate and it’s
something the world can look at and
learn from I think you know as the work
the rest of the world gets busier more
development happens path is going to
become much more of a reference as this
beautiful tranquil place more attractive
to tourists a better place to be for us
you know they look at the people who are
lucky to live
here it’s going to be we’re gonna really
value it more as the rest of the world
go to be mad and you know the the people
have recognized this for many many years
it’s 600 years ago a guy talking about
the landscape setting a path to which
nothing in the world is equal in respect
of beauty and delight what a lovely way
of thinking about the landscape of Bath
now going back to that green thing bath
is surprisingly green when you start to
look at the context of it you know if
you look at any any typical view looking
out from the city center or from around
the edges
it’s probably more than 60% of that view
is actually green landscape that’s why
we’re like living here yes the
architecture is beautiful but that is a
key ingredient of why it’s really great
to be here and as we go forward we need
to find ways to actually manage that
resource better get more people engaged
with that make make it more accessible
and late last year I was sort of it
invited to be the the chair of the the
bath scape landscape partnership which
is a fantastic project which is looking
at making the whole of the bath setting
landscape setting more accessible to
people more engaged with people looking
after the qualities of physical fabric
of it and we’re hoping that you know the
Heritage Lottery Fund if they approve
our bid for 1.8 million we can set for
for the whole range of projects which
are going to really sort of start to to
set a new agenda for both in terms of
the way we work with our landscape and
if buscapé is actually the the mechanism
for actually making everything start to
work together projects like forests of
imagination which is on in the city at
this moment highlight how we can
mobilize as a community to sort of work
with the creativity inspired by the
landscape respond to sort of
environmental challenges and actually
have a great time it’s not just about
the science of being feeling healthy and
funny and all those sort of things
it’s about having fun and coming
together as a community and a creative
community at that
so birth is at the I think it’s really
at the sort of frontiers of actually
doing some amazing things in the terms
of way we we manage our landscape
resource how we engage people and
there’s lots of projects all starting to
go both scape forest imagination
festival of nature waters of birth we
can implement all those and we can make
this place of just the most amazing
landscape city the most inclusive most
child-friendly most creative artistic
green best place to live in the world it
is a jewel in Britain it is one of the
most amazing places in the world to be
and I think we can keep that going thank
you [Applause]
and nature as the key foundation to the
future of city planning I want to really
make this the sort of focus for how we
think about the design planning and
management of our cities because I think
we’re missing a huge trick in the way
we’ve thinking about it in the next by
2050 the world population is going to
grow by two and a half billion on top of
the seven point seven billion we have at
the moment where there’s people going to
live what sort of places that we want to
live in
we think of contemporary cities as quite
dysfunctional actually they’re polluting
the transport systems and not terribly
brilliant they’re using global resources
in a really weird way so I think we’ve
already got to sort of rethink about how
we how we think about and strategize the
way you think about cities and I think
we can go back to you know we are beings
of nature we should remember that
actually the natural world is actually
our origins we came from forests we came
from savannas we grew up in these sort
of places and we’ve totally lost that in
the way we think about that the way we
think about city planning and design and
so when we get into thinking about
landscape cities the idea that you know
the landscape becomes a preeminent sort
of thing way of thinking about it what
do we need to put into the equation for
me the color green is really important
it’s a bit corny green landscape all
those sort of things but actually
there’s some real science behind it
actually in the presence of green the
pituitary gland is stimulated which
enhances your levels of histamine and
basically you start to become calm
that’s a sort of there’s a science to
that similarly the visual spectrum
Green is sits right at the middle it’s
the biggest part of the visual spectrum
and it’s it’s were human visual
perception is most acute it’s why they
use green in sunlight of course is a
sort of a once again there’s a science
to that Green is the most dominant color
in nature
it’s you know the idea of chlorophyll
and photosynthesis and the sort of basic
life source for us all is derived from
green so we should be green we should
enhance green in the way we recreate our
environments and clearly also the idea
of nature and it’s obvious but you know
we all feel better in nature and there’s
a scientist he started to prove that
actually there’s many reasons for that
actually we go outside there are certain
bacteria and microorganisms that become
part of our microbiome which make us
happier
so actually specific bacteria that they
find that actually do that being in
nature being part of a green environment
reduces stress it improves mental health
it improves the way we think about
things it improves creativity all of
this research there to show this and yet
you know still in the way we think about
cities by and large landscape is put to
one side Green is put to one side it’s
changing though because of this and
because we need to put this front and
center into the into the world so
landscape cities to me is a very
exciting concepts and it’s not a new one
basically I mean place like Edinburgh
where you have a very profound sort of
foundation built on the landscape built
on this or volcanic landscape of the the
crags and where the castle sits really
powerful sort of sense of work in a
historic city landscape city another one
which is more current his Singapore
Singapore has actually taken the idea of
landscape and and and greening to the
nth degree they now define their whole
identity as a city in a garden
overriding everything there are policies
that drive the greening of the city
every building has to replace its
footprints with at least 100 percent
green space many many policies go all
the way through the way they think about
it and and we’ve been very lucky as
myself as I was give Arctic to to work
in that place on amazing project called
guns by the bay the sort of super trees
which had been grabbed as this sort of
symbol of the city in a garden it’s
about the future
there’s a future perspective here it’s
about how do we rethink the identity of
our place how do we promote our a sense
of management of the resources we have
how do we how do we bring people
together using landscape to create
amazing destinations amazing places to
gather and I think you know for me
that’s been a great sort of lesson in
terms of the power of landscape and
nature in cities to drive things forward
and obviously in London they’re very
excited about this as well the National
Park City has been promoted you know
it’s going to be happening next year
imagine the whole of London as a
national park it’s a really exciting
concept because it places the green
space and the underwater and the
networks and all those things that go
with it the nature as a sort of driving
lifeblood of the city and I think that’s
really something that we can do but
actually bath in what many ways is the
sort of definitive landscape city for me
it’s always a fantastic reference point
when I’m designing because it actually
has this combination of architecture and
landscape and nature absolutely in plain
sight for everybody and it’s been around
you know this sort of idea that there’s
this beautiful sort of balance of
landscape and architecture and living in
Bath has been around for many many years
and I think it sort of gives us a sort
of a real chance to start to celebrate
the city yes we are a world heritage
site it’s one of only two major world
heritage sites that are entire cities
Martha is unique because its citation
includes the landscape you know this is
something we should celebrate and it’s
something the world can look at and
learn from I think you know as the work
the rest of the world gets busier more
development happens path is going to
become much more of a reference as this
beautiful tranquil place more attractive
to tourists a better place to be for us
you know they look at the people who are
lucky to live
here it’s going to be we’re gonna really
value it more as the rest of the world
go to be mad and you know the the people
have recognized this for many many years
it’s 600 years ago a guy talking about
the landscape setting a path to which
nothing in the world is equal in respect
of beauty and delight what a lovely way
of thinking about the landscape of Bath
now going back to that green thing bath
is surprisingly green when you start to
look at the context of it you know if
you look at any any typical view looking
out from the city center or from around
the edges
it’s probably more than 60% of that view
is actually green landscape that’s why
we’re like living here yes the
architecture is beautiful but that is a
key ingredient of why it’s really great
to be here and as we go forward we need
to find ways to actually manage that
resource better get more people engaged
with that make make it more accessible
and late last year I was sort of it
invited to be the the chair of the the
bath scape landscape partnership which
is a fantastic project which is looking
at making the whole of the bath setting
landscape setting more accessible to
people more engaged with people looking
after the qualities of physical fabric
of it and we’re hoping that you know the
Heritage Lottery Fund if they approve
our bid for 1.8 million we can set for
for the whole range of projects which
are going to really sort of start to to
set a new agenda for both in terms of
the way we work with our landscape and
if buscapé is actually the the mechanism
for actually making everything start to
work together projects like forests of
imagination which is on in the city at
this moment highlight how we can
mobilize as a community to sort of work
with the creativity inspired by the
landscape respond to sort of
environmental challenges and actually
have a great time it’s not just about
the science of being feeling healthy and
funny and all those sort of things
it’s about having fun and coming
together as a community and a creative
community at that
so birth is at the I think it’s really
at the sort of frontiers of actually
doing some amazing things in the terms
of way we we manage our landscape
resource how we engage people and
there’s lots of projects all starting to
go both scape forest imagination
festival of nature waters of birth we
can implement all those and we can make
this place of just the most amazing
landscape city the most inclusive most
child-friendly most creative artistic
green best place to live in the world it
is a jewel in Britain it is one of the
most amazing places in the world to be
and I think we can keep that going thank
you [Applause]
Please follow and like us: