Industrial urbanization disconnected city dwellers from direct access to natural resources. Consequently urban forests were introduced into cities for their aesthetic and environmental qualities, and are managed through the practice of urban forestry, which primarily focuses on maintenance services. However, emerging initiatives around the world are expanding the scope of urban forestry practice through the network generated by untapped forestry resources in the city. This study aims to clarify the potential of urban forestry for fostering citizens participation through resources accessibility, by comparing the network of different case studies based on the resources transformation and the members involvement.

Urban parks are places that have significant impact on the physical and mental health of citizens, but they are also for safeguarding biodiversity and thus fostering human–nature interactions in the everyday landscape. The exploration of these spaces through social media represents a novel field of research that is contributing to revealing patterns of visitor behavior. However, there is a lack of comparable research from a non-anthropocentric perspective. What if we could use social media as a more-than-human communication medium? This research aims to reveal the possibility of communicating the urban forest’s voice through the examination of the official Twitter account of a metropolitan park in Tokyo. To this end, an analysis of the content of the messages is carried out, focusing on the narrative voice from which the message is told, the protagonists, the action performed, the network of actors deployed, and the place where it occurs. It is found that the majority of these messages are delivered from a non-human perspective, where plants, animals, or meteorological agents behave deploying complex networks of more-than-human interaction. The current study reveals the latent potential of non-humans as possible agents within the realm of social media, which can mediate the relationships between humans and their environment. It introduces a layer that can be incorporated into future lines of research, as well as provides a model case that illustrates a good practice in the management and communication of urban green spaces.

This study explores urban forestry as a maintenance practice capable of enhancing more-than-human commons in the city. Focusing on the places associated with tree care, the methodology takes as a case study the Tokyo Metropolitan Parks, conducting quantitative and qualitative analysis through the means of immersive field work and questionnaires, to reveal how urban forestry practices materialize within the parks. Regarding the spatial relations between humans and/or non-humans with resources, different Urban Forestry Elements (UFE) have been found, as well as their collection in groups within the parks forming Urban Forestry Assemblages (UFA). The paper creates a comprehensive framework that reveals these places for urban forestry as important beacons for urban commoning.

No abstract

Climate emergency has triggered environmental concerns in different forms of architectural practice. Shenzhen Biennial of Urbanism and Architecture (UABB) provides the framework to question obsolete models that still shape our cities. This report aims to provide a design methodology that addresses the intersection between green resources and the urban environment by examining two pavilions designed by Atelier Bow-Wow + Tsukamoto Laboratory at UABB 2017 and 2019. These projects are the means to reveal the possibility of transforming green waste into resources for reconstructing urban commons based on existing livelihoods. Potentialities and failures are shown, rethinking commons in the contemporary metropolis.