Designing for Urban Green Space

Elizabeth Goodman

University of California, Berkeley

School of Information

A little about me

Green space is not just a backdrop to sell computers

Intel Centrino advertisement

Urban green space is not “natural”

San Francisco Historical Photo Collection - San Francisco Public Library

Design is a form of politics

Library of Congress

What we want for green space can tell us a lot about what we want and fear for our cities.

What public visits the park? Whose community is in the garden?

Urban green spaces are a technology

…for what end?

Air Trees Eco Boulevard

The benefits of urban green space

Public health

Opportunity for physical exercise

Asthma mitigation

Psychological well-being

Environmental remediation

Storm runoff reduction

Pollution absorption

Wildlife protection

Street noise buffering

Neighborhood stability

Building social cohesion to address local concerns

Child education

Adult work training

Designing for and with urban green space

Growing expertise

Personal soil sensor linked to plant knowledge databaseEasyBloom

Soil sensor sends wireless watering remindersBotanicalls.com

Community website turns seasonal, local, personal experiences into adviceMyfolia.com

Easybloom Botanicalls folia

Pho

to: M

att J

ones

Cultivating networks of production

Mapping free fruit on private property to advertise availabilityFallenfruit.org

Brokering agreements online to share urban land cultivationLandshare.net

Coordinating action to taking over street sights Guerillagardening.org

Fertilizing action

Tracking continental climate change by volunteer “citizen scientists”JourneyNorth.org

Charismatic images for changing regional planning priorities“The 50 Million Dollar Photos”

Promoting accountableurban managementParkScan.org

Framework: Networking green spaces

sharedgarden green

roof

yard

publicpark

database

sensing

charity city

regionalwatershed

foodgrowing

Road sidegardening

citizengroup

Parklands

sidewalkconversion

Worktraining

open API

interface

Of distributed urban farming

Farmadelphia - Front Studio

Of ecosystem intervention

PlantSF.com

Of institutions and groups

City of Seattle Food Bank garden plot

Thanks!

Elizabeth Goodman

www.confectious.net

egoodman@confectious.net