Historical city centres in Europe are densely built up. This density is actually a favourable design feature in terms of supporting the low ecological footprint of city residents: it enables cities to be more energy efficient compared to their peri-urban and rural counterparts. The small distances between everyday amenities mean lower transport use – they enable walking, cycling and efficient public transport modes to flourish.
Living in compact apartment houses requires less energy for heating each apartment – and fewer square metres are taken up per resident. This high density is, however, also a challenge. Public and, in particular, green space is limited. This reduces the availability and quality of ‘pleasant’ outdoor environments. This lack of green correspondingly fuels the urban heat island effect.
The Green-Blue Development of the City of Breda: A Brief Background
The city of Breda in the Netherlands, a country with a very urban population density, faces many challenges when it comes to compact, sustainable urban development. In the 1950’s and 60’s, it filled parts of the inner city canals so much that the river Mark was no longer able to flow through the centre. This was done in order to establish a four-lane road and a carpark in the densely built-up centre. However, in the 90’s, the mindset in the city changed: residents called for more nature and the city started to uncover parts of the river, a process that is still ongoing. Despite this positive development, the river stills runs between steep city walls, leaving very little space for nature to grow and thrive.
Nature-Inclusive Quays (NIQs): a new concept born in Breda
When local planners presented the rather grey design for the river opening sections to the citizens of Breda, their response was clear: “we want something greener”. This prompted planners to reconsider the design and brainstorm innovative ideas to make the quays greener. While green walls are now well-known, Breda’s planners wanted to be even more nature-inclusive. Thus, the idea of Nature-Inclusive Quays (NIQ) was born. It takes its inspiration in observations of older, little used and/or poorly maintained quays and other walls, where nature (mosses and herbs, even small trees) invades the vertical surfaces on its own. The question for the design team was: could this natural phenomenon be mimicked by deliberately nature-inclusve quays (NIQs)?
To develop the NIQ, Breda sent an application to the innovative nature-based solutions call launched by the Urban Innovative Actions initiative. The proposal was selected, and in 2019, the GreenQuays project began.
