In my first blog post, I said that I have an idea that I believe will drastically reduce the impact that cities have on the natural environment. That claim brings me to this question: what is this magical idea in which I have so much confidence?

The answer: natureful cities.

Cities are undoubtedly human artifacts, and they have been built to serve human needs. From my observations and the material I have read, this has led to a concept of cities being for people, and the natural world should either be kept out, or harnessed to serve human purposes. Urban parks and private gardens permit some crossover, but the natural world is still spatially constrained within the urban landscape, and often treated as subservient to the architectural world. Cities are artificial spaces made for human comfort and convenience, and the inclusion of nature must therefore compete with all of the other services and activities that take place in cities.

However, the concept of natureful cities – a name that has been lifted directly from the website Biophilic Cities (biophiliccities.org/our-vision) – proposes that the natural world is not a desirable amenity for human comfort, but an essential need.

To be clear, the proposal of natureful cities is not simply about increasing the amount of green space or natural features that exist in city. Instead it is an attempt to redefine the concept of cities altogether. The environmental movement has been generally successful at showing that humans are not outside of nature, but are part of complex natural systems; and I would argue that people have grown a new appreciation for the natural world as a result, coupled with a desire to protect those systems (both for the sake of their own survival and that of the moral imperative to enhance rather than destroy).

While we have learned to see ourselves as part of the natural world, we still view cities as unnatural. And, indeed, they are. The orthogonality and rigidness of urban landscapes stands apart from the materiality of the natural world. The concept of natureful cities, however, aims to incorporate urbanism into the natural. And it does so be imagining cities as the framework upon which can be built a new set of natural systems. Ecosystems can be planned, designed and built to be entirely or predominantly urban. A natureful city will be home to more than just humans, our pets and unwanted ‘pests’ (such as pigeons and rats); it will be a diverse habitat that supports life and biodiversity.

And the great thing about this idea is that it helps us, too.