What would be a good spot for some additional green in your city? I can imagine it can be a challenge to plan and organise this, but I recently found out that the “oldest city of Holland” has organised a moveable set of trees to prototype where to place more green.
Dordrecht uses a number of crates filled with plants and trees to find out how a street or square in Dordrecht could benefit from more green. The initiative is called “Bewegend Bos” started in May 2023. I’ve encountered them in a couple of places around the city and yesterday, while doing my jogging round, I found them on the river dock creating a nice green boulevard.
They were situated in two rows and turned the harbour into a green park. There were 64 crates, but after scanning the QR-code on the crates I learned that there are 200 of these roaming the city. It's really nice to see these green crates replacing parking spots or parts of a road. You have some more shade and the city looks alive and vibrant thanks to all of the plants. I really like the initiative because, next to making my hometown a little bit greener, it's a great example of Continuous User Involvement. Various public spaces are temporarily (one or two months) turned into a green environment. This way people living there can find out if it’s a good idea to sacrifice a parking spot or a sidewalk and replace it with more green. The forest is constantly moving and it's a great way for the municipality to learn how to improve the city. When it was time to relocate the mini-park to a new location, people already suggested to keep a number of crates, because they liked it so much.
The project doesn’t elaborate on how communities are involved and what the criteria are for success, but you can get in touch to find out if the forest can liven up your neighbourhood.
Where would you like to have a mini forest?