Quality Green Space Beats Quantity

22/02/2017

Image: BWIP

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We are often lead to understand that access to green space in the city creates reduced stress level, decreases negative mood, reduces feelings of depression, and provides other benefits to health and well-being. However, a number of studies coming out appear to suggest that there may be little correlation and that it may be inaccurate to directly conclude that an increase in green space provision will lead to a direct increase in well-being. Without clear qualitative attributes, data suggests that poor green space can sometimes even have negative connotations. Smaller, well-conceived, designed and maintained amenity spaces can be much more valuable as public assets than large poorly designed or maintained areas. 

Hong Kong：Chatham Road South. Image: Google

​Typically, city green space is formed in something I remember at college as being termed “S.L.O.A.P,” an acronym for Space Left Over After Planning: useless pieces of ground remaining from the implementation of development projects, especially highways. Hong Kong is a wonderful example of a city full of S.L.O.A.P, usually designated as ‘O’ Open Space or “GB” Green Belt on planning zoning plans and filling inaccessible areas between roads, actual slopes and buildings. These spaces are often disconnected, sterile, poorly funded and maintained but frequently allocated as planned open space provision. They are the awkwardly formed land patches where developers cannot develop and drivers cannot drive; they host drains, utilities and level changes. Even specifically provisioned parks in both Hong Kong and China are typically placed where not needed by other facilities rather than positively introduced where they can best serve the community. They are ringed by multi-lane highways, with restricted access, are fenced off from adjacent areas and are laid out based on minimizing maintenance commitments rather than maximizing opportunities for amenity and urban enhancement. 

Green space left over after infrastructure development . Hung Hom Interchange. Image: Google

​It’s a fact that our cities are laid out primarily by Planners and Engineers. They are trained in quantitive analysis and straight line administration, ensuring that sufficient facilities are provided to meet per capita population needs. They shape our lives through one dimensional block drawings without localized understanding of the complexities of place, people and environment. What is so often lacking is facilitating the right facilities in the right place and of providing clear directives about the quality of urban spaces to be provided around them, in terms of who will need to use them, how they need to use them and what is then required to make them fully integrated into urban development planning.  

Urban planning and design are difficult to do well. They involve complex trade-offs where hard to measure environmental and social requirements often need to take precedence over yardstick, development, engineering and transport concerns. Are our simplistic planning methods addressing these complex, integrated needs?

“keep out”! An isolated island park ringed by highways and barriers Hong Kong：Wai Yip Street Park. Image: Google

Read article at Why Park Designs Affect Mental Health