The combination of a shady and leafy environment in urban areas makes it a fine and beautiful place to live and stay. To generate energy and enthusiasm for this, the Leeuwarden City Council has commissioned a plea for a greener downtown to be made by DS in collaboration with Bruno Doedens. Not to show how it will actually be, because nothing is fixed yet. But to seduce and show how it can be. If we want it together…..Do you envision it?
With the map we show in which places in the city center there are opportunities to counteract the effects of climate change with more planting. This includes both public spaces and private areas.
Opportunities for climate and biodiversity are classified into 3 types:
1. Inside and against the old city wall
This area consists of has large contiguous parks and wide water. The robust old city walls are connected to the surrounding landscape with centuries-old canals. We want to expand this green-blue structure. This includes, for example, replacing paving on the quays with more greenery and façade gardens and restoring old, disappeared parks. With this, parts of the city can be better connected to green robust areas such as the Prinsentuin and the Westerplantage.
2. The (filled in) canals and former markets.
These are the old connections in the inner city. The addition of greenery can be combined well with making the inner city car-free. By replacing paving and parking spaces with more green strips with trees and plants, we connect the greenery and can better retain water and prevent flooding.
3. Inner city neighborhoods and streets
Residents and business owners have a big role to play here. With more plants and less stone in front and behind properties, it will be cooler and quieter. Water is retained longer. This also makes city animals happy. This category includes, for example, building façade gardens and climbing plants against the façade, planting roofs, replacing pavement in unused corners with plants and placing planters.
Inspirational images
Pictures say more than 1,000 words. The inspiration images show what planting can do. The images show an inner city that is more climate-friendly, more biodiverse and where it is pleasant to stay.
Bruno Doedens’ BOSK event, in which more than 1,000 trees were placed in a downtown location for a week at a time, literally made people feel and hear the positive effect that planting has on the quality of the living environment. BOSK made people enthusiastic and they may want to get started themselves. We need active residents to transform the city and solve the problems of climate change.
