A Living City

**Please note that this event will now take place at the Fine Art Lecture Theatre, King Edward VII Building.

Creating urban environments that promote biodiversity and ecological resilience.

Cities have long been conceived in opposition to nature, as spaces of human habitation and dominion. Where nature enters into cities it often does so in highly controlled and demarcated environments: parks, squares and private gardens. However, it is increasingly becoming apparent how damaging this separation is for nature – and also for cities. Separating cities from nature and enforcing that distinction has the effect of distancing cities and their inhabitants from the ecologies and natural systems that sustain: from water to food. Meanwhile, in cities themselves, built environments that are devoid of nature and have limited or even no biodiversity have been shown to have damaging effects on health and wellbeing.

In this event, we explore the ways natural and urban environments might be integrated, how and at what scales this might be achieved, and benefits might be derived from it, from community cohesion to ecological resilience. How, in particular, might be develop new ways of thinking about and producing built environments that work in mutually supportive way with nature, rather than in opposition to it? What is ‘a living city’ and how do we bring it about?

Speakers

Usue Ruiz Arana is a chartered landscape architect, researcher, and educator. Her research crosscuts the fields of acoustic ecology, multispecies collaborations and ‘research by design’ and is concerned with advancing Landscape Architecture as a discipline uniquely positioned to address planetary health, biodiversity and climate crises, and ecojustice.

Lotte Dijkstra is a landscape architect, storyteller and artist, currently completing a PhD in landscape architecture at Newcastle University.

Scott Matthews is a landscape architect and founder of Hyem Landscape, a practice rooted in experimentation, practice through learning and inclusive design. Based in Newcastle, Hyem collaborates with communities and institutions to reimagine public spaces as catalysts for wellbeing and belonging, exploring how landscape architecture can shape more equitable, responsive environments.

Dmytro Legeyda is Professor of Architecture and Fluid Mechanics at Kharkiv National University of Civil Engineering and Architecture and a visiting researcher at the Hub for Biotechnology in the Built Environment and the School of Architecture, Planning & Landscape at Newcastle University. The main focus of Dmytro’s research is how to create sustainable cities that do not lead to a depletion of natural environments and resources.