Previous derelict area

'Grey to Green' is one of the most invested projects in Sheffield, to transform the Riverside Business District. In Phase -1 this project will transform a 1.2 km unused road to attractive new public space, which will include innovative perennial flower meadows, an interlinked sustainable urban drainage system (SUDS), rain gardens, public art and high quality paved footways (ref 2). The whole project and landscape have been designed by the City Council, partnership with the University of Sheffield Landscape School, Amey and Robert Bray Associates. The SUD was designed by leading national experts on landscaping, and it is believed that SUD will help in flood relief in this part of the city by soaking up run off to the river within the ‘flood zone’ (ref 2). In Phase-2, the scheme will link Castlegate to the under-used Victoria Quays area and transform the almost redundant former inner ring road with sustainable drainage, floral meadows, segregated cycle lanes and public art. (ref7)

Due to years of under-investment left the Park Hill estate in a state of decline. The challenge for Sheffield Council was to regenerate a neglected estate into a place people wanted to live in. The city council allocated private gardens, a wildflower meadow, a bowling green and a parterre garden as part of the landscaping. Much of the landscaping will be inspired by the Peak District and typical Sheffield landscapes (ref 1). Park Hill is Grade II (special interest buildings and authority put extra effort to preserve them) listed and remains Europe's largest listed structure. The building alone covers an area of 17 acres and currently contains around 1,000 flats. In total the whole site covers 32 acres (ref 2). In the new proposal, a part of Park Hill flats will be converted into student housing (ref 5).

The project addresses a current issue: the integration between cities and the countryside, and the relationship between the urban and the agricultural context. The NBS focuses on enhancing the west peri-urban area of Bologna through the promotion, recovery and valorisation of old rural settlements as new nodes of the productive-fruit network (4). The intervention is extended over 50 ha of municipal property and focuses on natural restoration of the rural landscape and the infrastructure in proximity of it in order to improve local agricultural businesses and recreational activities. As of July 2020, the project is still in full force.

The conservation of agricultural activities allows for the preservation of the landscape for all, with the possibility to offer to Milaners a place of leisure, tranquility, nature and tradition within the city, where to taste - also while tasting the products of the earth - what is the the Milanese agricultural world. It is located in the South West of Milan, within the Parco Agricolo Sud, in an area between the two Navigli, the Grande and the Pavese (1).

Bundek Park is one of the urban planning projects aimed to create a recreational and sports area for the citizens and tourists to support a healthy lifestyle (Ref 3). The lake is surrounded by Bundek Park which stretches for 2,000 meters in length with an area of 35 hectares. The lake is about 5 hectares. the lake was initially used for fishing, walking and swimming. With the increased and carefree use of the lake, the lake and the environment became a waste disposal site. In 2005, by the decision of the Mayor, Mr. Milan Bandić, the renovation of Bundek began. The project included cleaning of the informal waste disposal site and shrubs blocking access to the lakes, renovation of the access to the lakes, planting flowers and introduction of the benches and water also to allow citizens to use the lake for recreation and enjoy the nature (Ref 2).

Fornebu used to be Norway’s main airport, but was abandoned in 1998. The Fornebu project aimed to restore the 340 ha site in order to provide a sustainable, multi-use built environment with sustainable drainage systems and other green infrastructure in focus. The site now consists of residential and industrial buildings with a focus on green space and natural storm water management, involving the use of open and natural water retention methods, including swales, filter strips, permeable surfaces, detention basins and retention ponds (Ref. 1).

The Huerto del Rey Moro is an urban community orchard/ garden beside the historic house Casa del Rey Moro. It is one of the only open green spaces in the downtown area of Sevilla where activities of environmental education, leisure and socializing are performed. (Ref 2) The Rey Moro orchard is cited as keeping true to the historic and cultural use of the area since it has been used as an orchard on and off over the past 500 years. (ref 2) Thanks to citizens themselves, as citizens acted to keep it a public and open space against a proposed legislation that would destroy it. (Ref 5)

Eko Ekipa Prečko is an alternative urban garden in Zagreb which was initiated and promoted by the locals. The initiative was not supported by the government initially. Regardless of the lack of support, citizens jointly cleaned an illegal waste disposal site and the bushes and shrubs there to initiate a communal garden. Besides ecological food production, they also organize educational workshops for children and adults to get familiar with life in nature (Ref 1). People of all ages, the majority between age 30 and 40, from Prečko and neighbouring districts are involved with the garden (Ref 4).

The neighbours of the Fuensanta in Cordoba recovered an abandoned public plot of the old Fuensanta’s cinema transforming it into a social and ecological vegetable garden (Ref 1), occasionally used to play soccer and used as a dog park previously (Ref. 3). "All the activities were free of charge, coordinated by volunteers and consisted of: a walk around the neighbourhood, a building recycled furniture workshop, an urban vegetable gardens workshop and urbanism for children workshop. All of them took place in the plot and the creation of a vegetable garden was the most popular activity." (Ref 1)

This NBS is part of the new Porta Nuova area, an extended urban transformation of a neglected area of Milan. It consists of two residential towers of 110 and 76 m height hosting 800 trees and over 20,000 plants from a wide range of shrubs and floral plants distributed according to the sun exposure of the facade. On flat land, each Vertical Forest equals, in amount of trees, an area of 20,000 square meters of forest. In terms of urban densification it is the equivalent of an area of a single family dwelling of nearly 75,000 sq.m (3).