Green Places and Urban Trees
The April 2006 Green Places News, a monthly e-bulletin by the Landscape Design Trust has just arrived on my (e-) desk.
We at General Public Agency get an image from our King's Cross work splashed across the front cover, alongside the author's welcome (and understandable, given the publication) emphasis on the scheme's urban and green values: "The site is a major urban development that will provide a green corridor between the boroughs of Islington and Camden." Easy words to say, perhaps, but it's nice to see these aspects of the scheme in the spotlight.
Also a report from the Trees for Cities Urban Trees conference at the end of March. The article, by Howard Scott, mentions the laughable idea, courtesy of Myerscough College's Dr. Mark Johnston, that trees compromise urban safety through blocking the view for CCTV cameras: short term logic of the 'Secure by Design', prevention rather than cure ilk. Almost as bad as design guidance that prefers isolated single-person benches several metres apart, instead of grouped around tables or in lines, to discourage loitering (otherwise known as sociability, a game of table tennis/chess, good old-fashioned street argument, etc.) - that exact sociability that King's Cross is set to prioritise.
We at General Public Agency get an image from our King's Cross work splashed across the front cover, alongside the author's welcome (and understandable, given the publication) emphasis on the scheme's urban and green values: "The site is a major urban development that will provide a green corridor between the boroughs of Islington and Camden." Easy words to say, perhaps, but it's nice to see these aspects of the scheme in the spotlight.
Also a report from the Trees for Cities Urban Trees conference at the end of March. The article, by Howard Scott, mentions the laughable idea, courtesy of Myerscough College's Dr. Mark Johnston, that trees compromise urban safety through blocking the view for CCTV cameras: short term logic of the 'Secure by Design', prevention rather than cure ilk. Almost as bad as design guidance that prefers isolated single-person benches several metres apart, instead of grouped around tables or in lines, to discourage loitering (otherwise known as sociability, a game of table tennis/chess, good old-fashioned street argument, etc.) - that exact sociability that King's Cross is set to prioritise.
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