Arts
Plants in our cities are important for many reasons, like flooding and urban cooling and biodiversity and human wellbeing and health. But they also have economic impacts that make green cities as attractive to developers and investors as those who just want to stop and smell the roses. Episodes 12 and 13 of Hassell Talks looked at why we value wild, natural planting in our cities as well as the importance of scale, ecology and sustainability when creating landscapes that appear natural and organic. For Episode 14, Principal Jon Hazelwood explores the significance of our emotional connections to nature in cities. He is joined by writer, garden designer and TV presenter Michael McCoy as well as Professor Nigel Dunnett, who is responsible for some of the UK’s most spectacular planted environments like the Barbican, Buckingham Palace's Diamond Garden and the planting designs for the London Olympic park (with his colleague James Hitchmough).