For more than 300 years, we have been exploring the role of nature in urban development. From the Tuileries in Paris and London’s Hyde Park—both opened to the public in the late 17th century—to today’s urban forests, the approaches of architects, engineers, landscape designers, and their clients to nature are inextricably linked to technical challenges as well as political and social demands.
Since the Age of Enlightenment, urban nature has also been closely intertwined with concerns about hygiene and efforts to mitigate economic inequalities and social divisions. This marks a common thread of urban planning and has shaped the transformation of Paris under Baron Haussmann and the creation of New York’s Central Park. To this day, the evolution of urban nature runs hand-in-hand with changing ideas of society.
In his groundbreaking book, first published in French in 2024, distinguished architectural historian Antoine Picon demonstrates how urban nature has gained importance over centuries and reached an entirely new dimension in our age of global warming and climate crisis. He highlights the urgency to forge new connections between people and their environment: with soil, water, vegetation, and animal populations.
Picon illustrates how far we have already come and invites us to be innovative about our cities’ future.
