Wild & The City. Landscape Architecture for Lush Urbanism

Unspoilt ecosystems and wildlife are becoming increasingly common in contemporary European cities. Untamed lands are growing, often inhabited by animals and insects, while dense pieces of jungle take possessionof the parks, as well as the roofs and facades of the most fashionable buildings. Cities tend to get wild for a variety of reasons, sometimes as a result of a lack of care and design, sometimes intentionally, translatinga more mutualistic relationship between post-industrial societes and what we insist on calling 'nature'. In this scenario, design uses the wild to respond to a number of different issues: regenerating abandoned areas, revitalizing public spaces, improving the ecological footprint of new settlements, , fighting climate change, satisfying the inhabitants' 'desire for nature', and so on. This book offers clues to read the current relationship between Wind and City from a critical perspective. On the one hand, we explore the proactive value of wild landscapes to improve urban quality; on the other hand, we question the risk of wild as a buzzword that renews anti-urban position or feeds practices and policies of consensual and cheap-pludit 'greenery'.