Our imagined city park
We thought about city parks and how we think a city park should be and what it should contain.
In our opinion city parks should allow enough space for people. That means that there should be fields but aswell ways and trees. So you can do some sportive activities, but also hang around with friends or play something with other people. Maybe even have a picknick or have a little walk in the forest. All in all, the park should be a place of retreat from your daily business and shouldn't contain a city atmosphere.
If there is enough space, the park will automatically allow some little wild animals to live there. Maybe some ponds with ducks and fishes or even small lakes can also be a part. So it can create a small eco system and help the biodiversity.
When a city park is big and offers much to do and to see, it can be seen as a landmark of the city which would help the popularity of city parks.
First we asked ourselves if tiny House Living exists in Switzerland.
And to our surprise the answer was yes!
We Found two companies in Switzerland that specialize in tiny house living. Check out their websites:
We're planing on getting in contact with them to ask them some questions about their point of view in the tiny house movment. (Interview) More...
Improve city climate
To improve our city climate we have to start with ourselves. We have to be willing to change our habits and get used to new surroundings. Our imagination consists of a climate friendly city which is filled up with a lot of trees and solar panels. We think that these two methods would be the most effective and probably the easiest to improve our city climates significantly.
First of all, we would have to plan the locations and the financing of our city trees, parks and solar panels. The second step would be to actually install them and get people used to it. Then we would like to make some calculations to exactly define by how much we improved the actual climate of the city and how much energy we saved.
Petar and Leandro
With this project we would like to make the population, especially large companies, aware of the need to change the climate and that big cities make a large part of it. One way to change this is to have green roofs. Since there is not much room to plant trees in cities anyway, this can be done on large roofs.
We imagine that our project will motivate some to implement it. Furthermore, the project should fulfill our imagination to have a positive influence on the climatic conditions. With this procedure the quality of living should be increased and the rainwater can also be evaporated better.
We are aware of the fact that this implementation could be expensive and that the investment costs are higher than for a conventional roof. Furthermore, such roofs need to be maintained. But if you take a closer look, there are many more advantages. A green roof serves as a habitat for plants and animals!
To get more information about this topic, we might do an interview or create surveys.
Who knows, maybe in 20 years big cities all over the world will already change to green cities...
Karishma & Kamanya
A normal day, you go out to get lunch. You choose take away food to eat on a bench or somewehere and what do you get? Plastic wrapping. A plastic box together with matching plastic spoon, fork and knive, that you use for about 15 minutes until you have finished lyour food. After that, the packaging ends up in a normal rubbish bin, because you do not have the time to look for a recycling bin.
This is actually unnessecary rubbish that could be easily replaced by biodegradable boxes and wrappings. This cardboard-ish invention can be thrown into bio-waste or any other rubbish bin. (Another idea would be if people could simply bring their own boxes, such as tupperware. Then the food would only be weighted and no rubbish is generated.)
This change is neither very expensive nor does it take more time or efford which makes it a perfect way for restaurants to start being eco-friendly. Customers surely would appreciate.
The first image shows the plastic wrappings we all know already. They are not reusable and need to be recycled which is annoying to lots of people. The second picture contains these new, biodegradable packages. (They do not give any nasty taste to the food inside) They can be thrown into any rubbish bin there is. (Rice up! at the Zurich main station is already using these boxes)
This is our idea on how we want to make a change.
Chiara & Tonia
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The climate is changing. Cities are responsible for around three quarters of CO2 emissions. In order to reduce emissions, it is necessary to switch to other forms of energy production.
For this purpose, it is possible to install solar systems, heat pumps or geothermal probes.
Unfortunately, these procedures are very expensive to install. Therefore, it makes sense to promote the purchase of such equipment.
In my project I would look into the question, which subsidies are already available from the state or where there is still need for action. So that more households can afford such equipment.
Urban Gardening is the horticulture in cities, which is mostly small-scale. Typical examples in the city are courtyard and roof gardens. Urban Gardening has always existed, but the importance of this horticultural use of urban areas is growing. It's about sustainability, about the vegetables on your doorstep, also about cost reduction and last but not least about the important ecological aspects.
We want to teach our class members and other interested people how exactly such a garden works. On the internet you can read a lot about urban garding. During our project work we could perhaps interview a landscape gardener and learn more about the cultivation. We want to publish this information in order to motivate as many people as possible to run such an ecological garden.
Link: www.gartenbau.org
Simon Leuzinger & Luca Hofmüller
Animals in the city - How do they affect our environment?
We want to research the topic of animals who start to life in the city. Us humans take away their habitat and as a result of that action, they have to evade to our cities and our enviroment. How do they affect us? Can we do something to change it back to the way it was before?
We plan to do interviews with people involved in that topic and maybe even go on tours to see the impact and the consequences with our own eyes.
Anabel & Joelle & Sandra
What is our goal and how can it be achieved?
What exactly is the effect that our group wants to trigger with our action?
We want to show people that green houses are a service to our urban environment. Leaves and branches act as natural dust filters for the city air. Green roofs are therefore a real contribution to ecological building. People should not underestimate this.
By which methods / tools should this effect be achieved?
We would like to get more information on this topic by interviewing people who already have experience with greening roofs. We also want to prepare ourselves for the topic with internet research.
With which strategy should this effect be achieved?
We would like to pass on the knowledge we gain through interviews and research to the population, especially to companies. It should encourage them to More...
To reduce CO2 emissions in cities, I believe that urban traffic must be reduced.
To achieve this goal, I believe that various measures can be taken.
- Reducing access to the city or charging a fee.
- Reduce parking in the city
- Creating a car-free zone or even a car-free city
- Only allow certain vehicles into the urban area (electric vehicles, hydrogen vehicles, etc.)
In my project I would like to find out which of these measures make sense or where are the strengths and weaknesses of the respective variants.
Perhaps, in the course of the project, there will be other possibilities to keep traffic away from the city.
To cope with this, I would include a city in my project.