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Trend Watch March 2024

How a Colombian city cooled dramatically in three years Focusing on plants and people, Peter Yeung writes about how Medellín, known as the City of Eternal Spring with its year-round high temperatures, has created a people-led scheme of ‘green corridors’ to keep cool on the website ‘Reasons to be Cheerful.’ The project to plant and maintain hundreds of thousands of trees and plants across the city is carried out by 150 citizen-gardeners, who come from disadvantaged and minority backgrounds, with the support of 15 specialised forest engineers. Yeung said: “The $16.3 million initiative led to the creation of 30 Green Corridors along the city’s roads and waterways, improving or producing more than 70 hectares of green space, which includes 20 kilometres of shaded routes with cycle lanes and pedestrian paths. …

  • 26 mar 2024
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Trend Watch February 2024

Children living near green spaces ‘have stronger bones’: The link between stronger bones and green space for children is likely to be the result of more physical activities, Damian Carrington writes for The Guardian. Carington says, “Scientists found that children living in places with 20-25% more natural areas had increased bone strength that was equivalent to half a year’s natural growth. The study, the first of its kind, also found that the risk of having very low bone density was about 65% lower for these children.” The study took place in Belgium with Professor Tim Nawrot at Hasselt University. Nawrot said, “So the real public health message from this study is that urban planners can make stronger bones of children, and that has long-lasting consequences.” Carington adds, “The researchers said …

  • 22 feb 2024
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Trend Watch January 2024

Image: Carroll Go-Sam. Are yarning circles the new decal? With requests for yarning circles becoming increasingly commonplace in design briefs, Carroll Go-Sam, Indigenous research fellow in the Aboriginal Environments Research Centre at the University of Queensland’s School of Architecture, writes on ArchitectureAU how they might be more meaningfully incorporated into projects. In the early stages of a project design, she writes, a yarning circle concept is often supported by Indigenous engagement. “But, after the initial meeting and discussion, human-centred design, iterative development, empathetic accommodation, questioning and dialogue all stop, with the result that poor built examples outnumber good ones,” she said. Go-Sam is concerned when yarning circles become “quasi-sacred zones of exclusion, set aside for one day a year during NAIDOC Week.” She outlines five recommendations for designing a yarning …

  • 23 jan 2024
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Trend Watch December 2023

Plant diversity in urban green spaces led to sevenfold increase in insect species New research suggests that the introduction of even small green urban spaces can dramatically improve local biodiversity. A study lead by Dr Luis Mata of the University of Melbourne and Cesar Australia examined the ecological outcomes of planting 12 indigenous plant species on a small 195 square metre plot in Melbourne, adjacent to a major road. The research, Mata told The Guardian, “Was conducted in a very densely urbanised area, completely surrounded by streets and relatively tall buildings, and with limited access to surrounding green space.” The researchers identified the presence of 94 insect species, with 91 indigenous to the Australian state of Victoria. They estimated that by the final year of the study there were about …

  • 14 dec 2023
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Trend Watch, November 2023

Playful expectations Children learn and grow with play, especially outdoors, though research shows that children are now only spending two hours or less outside – 36% less than previous generations. Hayball associate and Landscape Australia writer Natalia Krysiak returns from her travels in Tokyo feeling inspired with ideas of how to create cities that support the wellbeing of children and encourage outdoor play. Krysiak describes the excitement of active children in the densest city in the world, Tokyo. She says, “Scattered among the trees are a mud kitchen, a zip-line, a secret tree house and makeshift cubbies used by children of all ages and abilities: the type of play that childhood dreams are made of.” Tokyo offers 80 playparks like this connecting children to unstructured nature-based play and Krysiak sees …

  • 21 nov 2023
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Trend Watch, October 2023

Australian Bird of the Year: Swift Parrot The critically endangered Swift Parrot has been crowned Australian Bird of the Year in the Guardian / BirdLife Australia’s biennial 2023 poll, a public voting contest that aims to raise awareness of conservation issues. After a successful online campaign by conservationists, concerned about dwindling numbers with only 750 of the Swift Parrots remaining in the wild, BirdLife describes this year’s outcome as “a huge win for threatened species everywhere.” Samantha Vine, BirdLife Australia’s Head of Conservation and Science, says, “We are watching extinction in real time for the Swift Parrot.” Alex Croft of BirdLife Australia says the Swift Parrot won with a grand total of 11,171 votes and the first time for ‘swifties’ to have taken out the title. The Tawny Frogmouth was …

  • 10 nov 2023
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