25.08.2010 - Ausgabe: 4/2010

Green spaces for the general public

P@L: The social benefits provided by public and private green areas are rather seen to be insinuated in public discussion, and investments in “greenness” are considered cost factors by companies and communities. The positive and monetary value of the social and individual aspects are often overlooked: These are?

Hanns-Jürgen Redeker: Green areas increase the value of a community, town or city for its inhabitants and companies, but also for tourists. Greenery enhances an industrial or trade location; in work places it improves the climate and increases the work output and productivity of employees; greenery creates a strong personal identification with the company but also with the living and working environment. It provides regeneration from stress and overwork and promotes awareness of the environment and its care. Greenery promotes recuperation and calmness and even helps patients recover more quickly. Green dissipates aggression, promotes a social structure and reduces vandalism; it increases quality of life for everyone creating a feeling of well-being and health.

For all these reasons it is important to push the value of greenery more strongly into the awareness of the public at large, but also of every single decision-maker. This can only be done in a sustained and effective manner through a good exchange of information. This is the reason why we initiated the foundation “The Green City”, the idea behind which has, in the mean time, been taken up throughout Europe.

P@L: Has the German Federal Minister for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection, Ilse Aigner, recognised the benefits of greenery and health?
Hanns-Jürgen Redeker: The needs of the urban population for recreational areas, from private gardens to regional green belts must be given increasing consideration – not only from the point of view of consumer protection. Consumer protection policies require long-term objectives, images and visions. The implementation of ecologically characterised visions, however, such as maintenance of an efficient ecosystem or improvement of the situation regarding urban recreation, demand courage from politicians, authorities and offices responsible as well as planners and this in times when funds are short. Greenery and health are also tasks which fall within the area of responsibility of this ministry. In order to combat increasing obesity among the population, exercise in green areas or sport and recreational facilities located near residential areas is gaining in importance. For this reason, Minister Aigner has become patron of the competition “Green Playgrounds” organised by the German foundation “The Green City” (Die Grüne Stadt). As she stated in her address, “I believe it is worth supporting an idea which makes it possible for children to learn about nature at the same time as playing outside. Especially for children who do not have a garden at home, it will provide them with an opportunity to grow up with nature. I hope there will be many entrants in the competition with plenty of good examples which will serve planners and architects as role models for Green Playgrounds”, she continued. The objective of the competition “Green Playgrounds” is to award prizes to exemplary playgrounds where varied, high-quality green landscaping, adapted to the location, plays a central role. Nearly 70 entries have already been inspected, the winner will be announced and the award presented at an event during the GaLaBau exhibition in Nuremberg.

P@L: Are garden exhibitions an instrument for success for sustainable urban development?
Hanns-Jürgen Redeker: Garden exhibitions always have a positive effect on the structural development of the cities where they take place, even long after they have ended. They are among the decisive factors for the value of living, working and lei-sure time and for the quality of life in a city. Investments in horticultural shows are investments made for generations. The creation, development and maintenance of this kind of park in a the required number, size and above all, quality, must form a significant element of all future-oriented urban development work. With the corre-sponding planning competitions, garden shows lead to optimal solutions for design and implementation and illustrate new approaches to urban development and land-scaping. These shows cause accompanying investments to be made – even by third parties – which often amount to many times that required for the show site itself (synergy effect). The overall design of the areas must be oriented towards the long-term requirements of the population as well as the planned green-political targets. The high quality of landscape gardening and maintenance services form the central requirements made of a garden show. Prerequisites for this are in particular a corresponding schedule of deadlines for preliminary examination, planning and work execution, but also include appropriate planned services, clear work descriptions, care with work allocation to expert, high-performance and reliable companies as well as top quality work and careful construction management.

It is however important that a clear target for sustainable promotion and development of the city or region exists. A line is drawn from sustainability through ecology to economy as garden shows can also give important impetus to industrial promotion in the region. One example: In Schwerin, Germany, hotels showed a 90% increase in capacity utilisation due to visitors at the BUGA (Bundesgartenschau) garden show. Garden shows are always made up of permanent and temporary exhibits. A concept for secondary use, drawn up at an early stage, determines what will happen with the individual beds and structures when the show is finished and who is responsible for them after close of the exhibition.
The first national German garden exhibition took place in Hanover in 1951 with the objective to push reconstruction work in the aftermath of the war. In the mean time, practically every mayor and all the city planners between Schleswig-Holstein and Bavaria and from North Rhine Westphalia to Brandenburg have realised that a national garden show is a very efficient means for sustainable urban development. It is not only the major cities who apply to host the BUGA. The Federal Garden Show 2015, for example, will take place as a joint project between four Brandenburg communities and a location in Saxony-Anhalt as the BUGA Havel region. All BUGA locations have been allocated up until 2019 and the organising company (Deutsche Bundesgartenschaugesellschaft, DBG) can not complain about a lack of interest in the exhibition. It is also important for future venues that the planning does not only concentrate on the actual 7 months of open exhibition, but that it also continues after the end of the show. A national garden show is intended to and must provoke sustainable change. This fact should not be forgotten by cities and towns wishing to host the exhibition. Being venue also means investing in the future of the city and the population. Sustainability here can be just as varied as the individual BUGA concepts themselves. For example, while the two BUGAs held in Cologne in 1957 and 1971 created the Rheinpark which is very popular even today, a completely new city quarter was created for the BUGA 2005 in Munich - the exhibition town Riem. Even though the BUGAs are all very different from each other they all have one thing in common - in the long run, the population benefits from them.

P@L: What will "sustainable urban development 2020“ look like?
Hanns-Jürgen Redeker: In the next decade, aspects such as demographic change, shrinking cities and growing metropolises, increasing traffic, problems with fine dust and climate change as well as the inter-reaction between greenery and health will have a considerable influence on sustainable urban development.

Responsible people in the federal and regional government as well as in cities and communities are increasingly realising which charitable effect is created by urban recreational areas. Professionally designed and well maintained green areas must form the basis for the new city politics of the 21st century in Europe. The renaissance of our cities must include parks, sport and leisure facilities, open spaces and avenues, whether this is their new construction or, in my opinion much more important, their maintenance through a professional care management system. The replacement and renovation of existing old parks and green areas must also be taken into consideration during this work.

Urban redevelopment is one of the largest and most exciting challenges which com-munities, building societies and planners will have to deal with over the next years. Urban redevelopment means city development, not just demolition, but upgrading, restoration and new construction. Soft location factors must also be promoted in fu-ture. Along with the classical economic location factors, primarily knowledge, innovation capability, cultural attractiveness and the size of urban potential for creativity will gain in significance. We must promote urban talent pools: Objective is to create mix of social, economic, cultural and physical which is as balanced as far as possible. Living and working in the green should not be allowed to remain only an advertising slogan of the real estate industry, it must also be implemented by politicians and administrators.

City and landscape planning, politics, the society and committed citizens must help here in an interdisciplinary way in order to make the cities worth loving and living in. This cannot be considered the future tune, but must start today if we want to change urban development 2020. New urban areas will become the recreational locations for core areas affected by urban reconstruction! The planning of open spaces is the instrument to achieve improved quality of living and life, especially in concentrated and unprivileged city zones. Urban development requires multi-layered location-specific marketing which must react in a flexible way to changes.

Furthermore, integrated urban development concepts are suspect to socio-political change and must be continued with urban development instruments. We need to move towards ecological urban development in order to make a contribution towards climate and energy policies. Sustainable urban development should also promote sustainable construction, key word "Green Building". This includes the whole spec-trum of factors which, from a comprehensive ecological point of view, can be de-signed for a building in a sustainable way. I would like to mention, for example, land use, sealing of surrounding areas, use of renewable raw materials for construction and interior finishing, room climate, traffic topics, green roofs, in inner areas, on the façade and around the building.

Plants of any kind and size are sustainable. They improve air quality and have a positive effect on climate. Plants not only enhance real estate, they also make a decisive contribution to quality of life in living and working environments. They improve willingness to perform and promote health and for this reason, are continually increasing in significance. Shrubs in public areas are sustainable when they are used and cared for according to the location and the modern climatic, vegetation technology and economic requirements.

Federal government has also decided that the quality of life in cities should be im-proved with a variety of greenery. By the year 2020, planting of greenery around residential areas, including greenery near living quarters e.g. in yards, small lawns, roof and façade plants etc., should be considerably increased. Urban green areas offer comprehensive opportunities for recreation, games and learning about nature for young and old. This was recorded by the federal cabinet in a strategy paper on biological diversity. This paper is intended to be further developed and implemented in the short term.

We welcome this national strategy on biological diversity. For this first time it has been possible to define "concrete visions" for the future and to determine quality and action targets for many topics relevant to bio-diversity. In this respect it is especially pleasing that the urban areas are also to be included. both garden construction and landscaping can make an important contribution to the production of species, as a variety of kinds of high-quality greenery, shrubs and trees in the city fit in well with the biodiversity strategy of federal government.

P@L: Cross-generational play in parks is a major topic. How do garden con-struction and landscaping companies need to adapt to the wishes of senior citizens? What significance to public open spaces have for a changing society?
Hanns-Jürgen Redeker: The term "demographic change" is currently very popular. It means that - due to the low birth rate - a strong drop in population below the age of 20, a strong increase in population above the age of 65 and a significant increase in population above the age of 80 must be expected. For many political fields, in par-ticular safeguarding of old age pensions, these developments signify enormous problems.

It is repeatedly confirmed that there is a great necessity to adapt public parks and green areas around residential areas to suit the specific living requirements of elderly people. As a rule, however, implementation of new concepts comes to grief due to lack of funds or the political wishes of the majority groups.

For both residential greenery and public parks, a new evaluation of planning and design requirements must occur which is not only limited to barrier-free accessibility and low stumbling potential. In contrast, an upgrading of residential greenery must increasingly take into consideration the requirements and wishes of senior citizens. This process needs input and examples however, and will become especially suc-cessful at the point when economic advantages can be gained. This kind of approach can be clearly recognised with residential improvements of communities, for example in Eastern Germany. In particular in cities with shrinking shares of the population, the most successful ones will be those which can offer high-quality accommodation suitable for senior citizens and built in attractive locations. Senior citizens are a regular user group of public parks. A corresponding quality of greenery is decisive for the well-being and satisfaction of these users. Conversely, poorly cared for green areas create dissatisfaction. It can also be assumed that high-quality design for green belts is a very decisive factor for acceptance and, therefore, increase in value of residential real estate.

Concrete: In order to create acceptance, open spaces oriented towards specific age groups should convince with high quality and invite users with specially created attributes. Similar to the requirements made of private green areas, the following are particularly useful:

• Pathways and tracks in parks with marked trails of different lengths, also with steep and flat sections,
• different topical gardens with plants arranged according to topic, Garden of Senses, Herb Garden, Scent Garden or Garden of Sounds,
• areas of different sizes, divided into differently sized sections with short paths, clear trails, well lit in the evening, paths with different gradients, ramps and steps with handrails,
• possibilities to stop and take a rest as well as quiet areas for thinking or medi-tation, corresponding equipment and special facilities for physical training and to promote exercise e.g. with fitness equipment.
• flower beds, lawns and well-known plants such as roses or fruit trees in public places create the feeling of being comfortable or of being at home,
• lighting of steps and stairs should be designed so that it does not blind or throw shadows. Flights of steps - if they cannot be avoided - must be designed so that they are easy to climb.
• wherever possible, ramps should be straight, curved ramps should be avoided. Stone floors much have non-slip surfaces and offer sufficient colour con-trast.

Now is the time to set the points in urban planning towards creation of greenery suit-able for and attractive to senior citizens – not only to increase the value of real estate, but much more, in order to increase the recreation and leisure value of a green city. An important prerequisite here is high-quality greenery which corresponds to the requirements of users and which can be found in direct living surroundings of the population. Garden construction and landscaping companies are re-orientating themselves towards these new user requirements for planting greenery in public and private places.

P@L: In the end, what will parks and public green places of the future look like?
Hanns-Jürgen Redeker: Times have changed: More than 50 percent of the world's population and even up to 80 percent of people in the rich countries live in cities. Even though they only cover three percent of the surface of the earth, cities use more than 80 percent of all resources. Communities are now faced with new tasks - also with regard to management of open and green spaces in the city.

It is known from the findings of many years’ examination that citizens, companies and communities all expect public green areas to be a contrast to sealed areas, for recreation, improvement of air quality and as a locational factor. With all this functionality it should not be forgotten that they also want green for its decorative appearance. The expectations on green areas in a city include a whole bundle of social, health, psychological and economic effects.

In times when funds are short it is increasingly more difficult to build new green areas and maintain them properly. Care for public green areas has in particular become a red rag - even though such parks are indispensable components of a functioning city and are among those factors which play a decisive part in determining the attraction of the city as an industrial location.

A climate compatible city requires at least one quarter of its area to be green. This cannot be achieved however, with a large central park. In future it will be important to create many green islands of at least one hectare area each. This was emphasised at the latest climate press conference held by the German Weather Service (DWD) in April 2009. If the demographic development is taken into account it becomes clear that future cities will need to have more green areas and that the green city is the model of the future.

Urbanity is in demand again and in many places a new zest for city areas can be encountered. Urban life is "in". Residing, living, and working in the city is becoming increasingly popular. "Back to the City" is eroding the slogan "Out to the country".
In total, the migration and shrinkage trends make one thing clear already today: Suburban life in the country or green belt as a general principle, is a thing of the past.

New strategies and open space typologies must be developed which not only shape the city, the natural habitat and sustainability, but which must also take into account the tight financial situation of many communities and private owners (such as the real estate industry, for example), for the maintenance of additional areas.

"We are becoming fewer, we get older and we are more diverse" as Prof. Paul Klemmer, President of the German Association for Apartments, Urban Development and Regional Planning (Deutscher Verband für Wohnungswesen, Städtebau und Raumordnung) summarised the situation.

It is especially the social adaptation processes which have a sustainable characterising effect on cities as places. It is the growth and shrinkage processes which will have a very significant influence on the future of cities and renovation of building culture.

The questions about social change which characterises our post-modern times, luckily do not only worry the expert world predestined to deal with it such as urban constructors, architects or landscape architects. In the same way as the old contradiction between the city and the country is slowly but surely dissolving and providing more room for principles of intermediate cities or porous/perforated cities, open spaces long ago escaped their traditional functional constraints and broke out of the often narrow limits of the garden fence.

The "Green City" is the model of the future and will have to survive with and from its contradictions. Cities should correspondingly learn again how to go on the offensive and "treat themselves" to things again, even in the face of sparse household funding.
Which city wouldn't want a Central Park or an English Garden?

It is exactly these green lungs for breathing that open up new possibilities outside of their specific locational character, in order to react to the current needs of urban populations and in addition, within the existing structure, to allow new uses to be made. The free, non-commercial acquisition of these open spaces is of existential importance. They make unplanned encounters possible and allow participation in public life at no charge. They serve social reanimation of city life and will form the public greenery of the future.