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If Only we had planted all those millions of trees, ponders Sharon Wright, landscape architect and principal at Hassell

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COVID-19 and lockdowns around the world have made the issues of access to green space, its distribution, and quality more prevalent. As a landscape architect, it makes me reflect quite differently.

If only all the trees I have imagined, planned, drawn and talked about were actually planted. Real specimens changing somebody’s walk down a street, somebody’s outlook from an apartment window.

If only those million trees had been planted on the east bank of Shanghai’s Huangpu, if only the forest had been planted down Park Avenue in New York, the patch of forest in the heart of Sydney’s central business district, the mini, temporary ‘meanwhile’ plantings throughout London’s East End, all those street upgrades and masterplans. If only…

I calculate all those specimens imagined by the world’s landscape architects and think… how many trees, how many forests, how many opportunities to change the fabric of a city?

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Sharon Wright

A landscape architect with a wealth of global experience, Sharon Wright has worked in Hassell’s London and Sydney studios, contributing to high profile international projects such as the Melbourne Arts Precinct in Australia and the Huangpu East Bank Urban Forest in China. She believes the best design builds a genuine sense of place, and she draws inspiration from a site’s specific context, history and character.
hassellstudio.com