Photo: Pedro Szekely
Photo: Pedro Szekely umbrellas, but when it rained, huge canopies unfolded to convert streets into arcades. It imagined a future London that was a cluster of green villages with artisanal economies and no modern transport. In a touch of satire, the Houses of Parliament had been converted into a dung market. NEW WALLS “new walls around our cities”. Pointing to Auckland belt had made its real estate among the priciest in the world - even though there is hardly a shortage of land in a country where sheep outnumber people. is good for people. The books inspired the “garden city movement” - the idea that towns should be orderly and utilitarian, but with natural elements. capitals”, four cited access to natural places as a down its old walls in the mid-19th century and replaced them with broad, leafy avenues, it added a new element to the European ideal - the green belt, a strip of undeveloped land engirdling the city. architecture at Edinburgh University, said that the instinct shown by the Zaatari refugees is part of the She said the hormone cortisol is an indicator of broader hormonal functioning, especially in response to stress. In healthy people, its levels are high when they wake up, then fall after half an hour. When her staff collected saliva from people in deprived urban areas in Scotland, they found that cortisol patterns were more distorted in those who had little access to green space. 14 — FUTURE CITIES OCTOBER 2016
for instance, women with access to nature have healthier babies. systems. Ward Thompson added that being in green areas appears to reduce stress through what she called “soft fascination”. CHINESE DYSTOPIA making with its rapid, but inhuman development that is environmentally and socially unfriendly.” problem” and that deprived urban areas must have attractive green places. busy street or a dark room,” she told EUobserver. “Trees swaying in the wind. Waves falling on the natural variations in patterns fascinating. They the old model with positive results. (green spaces on radial lines toward the centre that belt. fascination. Thomas More's the economics of Photo: nsula.edu FUTURE CITIES OCTOBER 2016 —
