Description

In this exhilarating look at cities past and future Ben Wilson proposes that in our world of rising seas and threatening weather the natural world may prove the citys savior

Since the beginning of civilization humans have built cities to wall nature out then glorified it in beloved but quite artificial parks In Urban Jungle Ben Wilsonthe author of Metropolis a seventhousandyear history of cities that the Wall Street Journal called a towering achievementlooks to the fraught relationship between nature and the city for clues to how the planet can survive in an age of climate crisis

Whether it was the market farmers of Paris Germans in medieval forest cities or the Aztecs in the floating city of Tenochtitlan premodern humans had an essential bond with nature But when the day came that water was piped in and food flown from distant fields that relationship was lost Today urban areas are the fastestgrowing habitat on Earth and in Urban Jungle Ben Wilson finds that we are at last acknowledging that human engineering is not enough to protect us from extremes of weather He takes us to places where efforts to rewild the city are under way to Los Angeles where the citys concrete river will run blue again to New York City where a bleak landfill will be a vast grassland preserve The pinnacle of this strategy will be Amsterdam a city that is its own ecosystem that makes no waste and produces its own energy In many cities Wilson finds nature is already thriving Koalas are settling in Brisbane wild boar may raid your picnic in Berlin Green canopies wildflowers wildlife the things that will help cities survive he notes also make people happy

Urban Jungle offers the pleasures of historyhow backyard gardens spread exotic species all over the world how war produces biodiversityalongside a fantastic vision of the lush green cities of our future Climate change Ben Wilson believes is only the latest chapter in the dramatic human story of nature and the city

Front cover photograph The Milan Vertical Forest 20072014 Milan Italy by Boeri Studio Cover photograph by Andrea/EyeEm Cover design by John Fontana

Typology Architecture Vertical forest Design team Stefano Boeri founding partner executive architects Davor Popovic Francesco de Felice project architects Phase 1Urban planning and preliminary project Frederic de Smet coordination Daniele Barillari Julien Boatyard Matilde Cassani Andrea Casetto Francesca Cesa Bianchi Inge Lengwenus Corrado Longa Eleanna Kotsikou Matteo Marzi Emanuela Messina Andrea Sellanes Phase 2Detail project Gianni Bertoldi coordination Alessandro Agosti Marco Brega Andrea Casetto Matteo Colognese Angela Parrozzani Stefano Onnis Consultants Arup Italia srl structural engineering Deerns Italia SpA facilities design Tekne spa detailed design LAND srl open space design Alpina SpA infrastructure design MIPRAV srl contract administration DL Studio Emanuela Borio and Laura Gatti landscape design