The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
Cities planning for park life
‘If we really want to incorporate nature in city building, then we have to mimic nature,” says Dror Benshetrit, an Israeli inventor and designer. “Sustainability is basically saying, ‘I did a bit better than the guy that was here before me’. The future is designing for ecological harmony.”
Benshetrit’s devotion to environmentally friendly architecture is apparent across all of his projects – from his 12-storey mixed-use development in Miami’s Wynwood arts district to Under/standing, a permanent exhibition found at the Brancott Estate vineyard in New Zealand. But his passion is most evident in Parkorman, a park six miles north of Istanbul.
Benshetrit’s company, Dror, was hired by a Turkish development business in 2013 to create the space, but the result – a feat of creativity that involves elevated walkways that twist around tree trunks – is yet to be built. “We got permits and approvals but there were some political issues,” he explains.
The delay is doubly unfortunate at a time when humans around the globe are seeking socially distanced solace in
open-air spaces. But Benshetrit thinks that Covid-19 has taught us all that green spaces are necessary.
Renderings of Parkorman highlight “The Loop”, an area replete with hammocks and swings above the park floor. There’s also a traditional park, giant ball pits and a water installation.
Working on Parkorman and other outdoors-focused endeavours has inspired Benshetrit to create SuperNature Labs, a wing of the company that is committed to “stopping urban sprawl as we know it by building communities with nature and like nature to improve the well-being of all life”.
Clearly echoing a global focus on sustainability and the outdoors, SuperNature Labs hopes to bring forward architectural projects like Parkorman.
Similar ventures have already been popping up across the world. Little Island, the futuristic-looking floating island park complete with outdoor performance spaces on New York City’s Hudson River, is set to open in spring.
Copenhagen is also getting a “parkipelago” by the city harbour, made up of man-made islands and floating parks, while Japan’s environmental ministry has approved a plan to set up designated work stations in national parks across the country to lure in remote workers.
So perhaps the silver lining of the pandemic will be exactly what Benshetrit hopes for humanity: a new focus on embracing the beauty of carefully constructed green spaces.