As towns and cities worldwide deal with fast-increasing land pressures, while also trying to promote more sustainable, connected communities, the creation of green spaces within urban areas is receiving greater attention than ever before. At the same time, the value of the ‘green belt’ as the most prominent model of green space planning is being widely questioned, and an array of alternative models are being proposed. This book explores one of those alternative models – the ‘green wedge’, showing how this offers a successful model for integrating urban development and nature in existing and new towns and cities around the world. Green wedges, considered here as ducts of green space running from the countryside into the centre of a city or town, are not only making a comeback in urban planning, but they have a deeper history in the twentieth century than many expect – a history that provides valuable insight and lessons in the employment of networked green spaces in city design and regional planning today. Part history, and part contemporary argument, this book first examines the emergence and global diffusion of the green wedge in town planning in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, placing it in the broader historic context of debates and ideas for urban planning with nature, before going on to explore its use in contemporary urban practice. Examining their relation to green infrastructures, landscape ecology and landscape urbanism and their potential for sustainable cities, it highlights the continued relevance of a historic idea in an era of rapid climate change.
Fabiano Lemes de Oliveira Associate Professor in Urbanism at Politecnico di Milano. His research interests include urban design theory, modern architecture history and exploring the relationship between modern planning ideas and landscape architecture.
IntroductionGreen wedge: definitionsInterdisciplinarity, locality, temporality and scaleThe structureMethods and sourcesPart 1 – Green Wedges in HistoryChapter 1 – Urban planning with natureThe Enlightenment and the pursuit of natureThe industrial revolution and the disintegration of open spacesThe rise of town planningRing vs. radial growthPark systemsChapter 2 – The emergence and diffusion of the green wedge ideaRadial planning, radial parks and green wedgesIntrinsic opposition: belts vs. wedgesOpposition resolved: belts and wedges as elements of the same park systemThe socialist cityChapter 3 – Towards a bright future: green-wedge visions for the post-war periodLondon: the green-wedge metropolisDiagraming the futureThe County of London Plan 1943The Greater London Plan 1944Other British citiesNew towns and green spacesPlanning new beginningsChapter 4 – Polycentrism and regional planningOrganising the territory: the Nordic experienceThe 1947 Finger PlanOther Scandinavian capitalsThe corridor-wedge model: the Nordic influencePlanning the metropolis: the case of São PauloCorridor-wedge in the United StatesVisions for South East EnglandThe case of MelbourneOther casesThe Green Heart and wedges of Randstad in the NetherlandsPart 2 – Green Wedges TodayChapter 5 – Green spaces, networks and contemporary challengesThe benefits of green spacesThe birth of Urban Design and the ‘Star City’Green infrastructuresLandscape EcologyLandscape UrbanismSustainability and resilience in face of climate changeChapter 6 – Towards sustainable and resilient city-regionsStockholm: towards blue and green wedgesThe development of a model: the Copenhagen Finger PlanThe green fingers of HelsinkiRandstad: from Green Heart to Green-Blue DeltaMelbourne towards 2030Freiburg: the green wedge and the mountain-valley systemsChapter 7 – Green wedges: from the city-region to the neighbourhoodHamburg green network planThe Raggi Verdi of MilanSongzhuang Arts and Agriculture City: a new form of urban-rural relationshipGreen wedges at multiple scales: ViikkiRieselfeldVaubanThe Neighbourhood scale: Dunsfold Park, UKThe green wedge as a typology: La Sagrera Linear Park, SpainGreen Wedge Urbanism: Past, Present and FutureThe green wedge idea: from the city scale to the polycentric regionTowards a theory of green wedge urbanismIndexBibliographyNotes
Green Wedge Urbanism provides an original and potentially impactful contribution to urban theory, history and practice. The narrative of the book surfaces the concept of the Green Wedge historically and geographically, acting both as an archaeology of its meaning and a critical examination of its contemporary practice.