What is Urban Wilderness and how do you envision it? : To me, I see urban wilderness as living environments in industrialized settings. Whether it’s a community garden on a city block, a remediated vacant lot, a forest at the edge of town, a fountain in an office plaza, a cluster of container plants on someone’s desk, or a green roof on a building-these are all good examples of urban wilderness.. Its about juxtaposing organic things (like water, plants, soil) with inanimate (like buildings and roads) in order to enhance and/ or restore one’s environment.
What type of interventions would love to see to help shape Urban Wilderness? We’re interested in both the practical and the fantastically impractical.: I would love to be able to heal toxic places and toxic people. Plants are great at doing this. I would love to see vacant, toxic lots turned into wildlife and nature sanctuaries, and/ or centers. I would love to see community gardens preserved and waterways cleaned up so we could create oyster beds. I love the idea of living art. Nature telling a story in a thought provoking way. Maybe we could create a beecam in our community garden and dig up the blacktop to uncover underwater streams. Why not have a nature center in the East Village where people can learn about Manhattan from long ago. We could even have a geodesic dome greenhouse that grows native plants… Love to see one of those in every neighborhood…
How would you practically teach and perform such an intervention? (and Would you be interested in leading it?): I am a community gardener in the East Village. We love to share the history of our garden with the public. Plants tell stories about the history of the place. We have talked about creating a nature center that would teach the history of the area and allow for native plants and animals to return. We could use the plants we grow to create living art in low energy environments like subways, classrooms hospitals and homeless shelters.
living environments in industrialized Places
NY, NY USA
What is Urban Wilderness and how do you envision it? : To me, I see urban wilderness as living environments in industrialized settings. Whether it’s a community garden on a city block, a remediated vacant lot, a forest at the edge of town, a fountain in an office plaza, a cluster of container plants on someone’s desk, or a green roof on a building-these are all good examples of urban wilderness.. Its about juxtaposing organic things (like water, plants, soil) with inanimate (like buildings and roads) in order to enhance and/ or restore one’s environment.
What type of interventions would love to see to help shape Urban Wilderness? We’re interested in both the practical and the fantastically impractical.: I would love to be able to heal toxic places and toxic people. Plants are great at doing this. I would love to see vacant, toxic lots turned into wildlife and nature sanctuaries, and/ or centers. I would love to see community gardens preserved and waterways cleaned up so we could create oyster beds. I love the idea of living art. Nature telling a story in a thought provoking way. Maybe we could create a beecam in our community garden and dig up the blacktop to uncover underwater streams. Why not have a nature center in the East Village where people can learn about Manhattan from long ago. We could even have a geodesic dome greenhouse that grows native plants… Love to see one of those in every neighborhood…
How would you practically teach and perform such an intervention? (and Would you be interested in leading it?): I am a community gardener in the East Village. We love to share the history of our garden with the public. Plants tell stories about the history of the place. We have talked about creating a nature center that would teach the history of the area and allow for native plants and animals to return. We could use the plants we grow to create living art in low energy environments like subways, classrooms hospitals and homeless shelters.
This post was submitted by marga.