Abstract Body

As cities are getting denser and larger, space for conventional green features is diminishing. Cities without green alienate people from nature, deteriorate ecological systems and directly harm personal well-being. Limited open areas and many sealed surfaces in today’s cities raise the need for a renewed green space approach that fits in an increasingly dense and compact urban landscape; an approach in which green space is not limited to large open spaces at ground level, but one where greenery is truly integrated with built structures. The concept of compact urban green space is used in this study to refer to green space compatible with this approach. Too often, green features on buildings and in small spaces solely serve aesthetic purposes and are treated as mere architectural decoration. This attitude results in pragmatic but disconnected interventions with little added value to ecology and well-being.

This study puts forward that urban planners and landscape architects should embrace these new and unconventional green spaces, because, when planned and designed from a larger social-ecological perspective, compact urban green space can functionally solve several urban challenges simultaneously, and improve ecological quality as well as human well-being. This paper aims to relate ecological resilience to personal well-being and describes how proper planning and design of compact urban green space can augment both aspects.

When small green spaces form a visible and accessible spatial network that engages communities and connects local ecological qualities, their impact increases. A better understanding of the structure and potential of new compact urban green spaces can be achieved by approaching them as related patterns interacting at and across different scales. In this study, novel compact space types, such as rooftop landscapes, bioreceptive building envelopes and topographic building blocks are tested in the spatial and social context of Rotterdam. This design experiment provides insights into how multidimensional green structures and networks can improve well-being and ecological resilience in future compact cities.