The time goes by so quickly here… It feels like I just got here three days ago but I’ve been here for well over a week.
Within the whirlwind of the week I got the opportunity to attend some of the Milano Arch Week lectures + exhibits.
The first lecture I saw featured Urban Good’s Charlie Peel. He spoke about the city of London and its future with regards to education, nature, and recreation. He brought up the issue that Londoners didn’t even know that their city was so green — they have about one tree per person and it is the most biodiverse area in the United Kingdom with around 1400 species. In order to educate and encourage Londoners to spend time in their green spaces, their team collaborated and researched to then make a map that showed all the natural areas (parks, hiking trails, gardens, woodlands, etc.) in a neat, fun and interactive way.
This map featured information on the wildlife, estimated land use, and more facts and figures with a cool and cohesive color palette. I thought this idea was very unique because it strayed away from the digital age that we live in. There is something about having this physical object as opposed to an app on your phone… it brings you back in time almost so that you can appreciate what’s around you.
Because of Urban Good and their collaborators, these issues have made its way to the Mayor of London, who allotted £2M for making the spaces accessible and make some improvements. London is now on its way to become a “National Park City” by 2019.
I think that this is really cool because everyone is forgetting about all of the nature around us. This is a unique chance to appreciate everything. This lecture was eye-opening and its interesting to see what is developed in London within the next couple of years as well as the “green-ification” of Milano’s city center.
If you want to order this map you can get it here for free from the Urban Good website.
You can also find out more information on the National Park City here.