We now know from endless scientific research, that people need a connection to nature to be healthy.

Some years back, Hanging Gardens won a design award for our ideas for greening up tiny spaces in Hobsonville. Nothing ever came of it and the developers continue to build clever, compact housing around shared green areas. All very lovely, but what about the actual houses themselves?

Typically the houses have 3 square meters of concrete at the back and if they are lucky, a few plants outside the front path. Then it is left to the owners of the new homes to think of some way to green up their tiny piece of land.

Surely for the extra cost of creating unified corridors of vegetation, this need to be considered at the design stage?  The health benefits for the inhabitants should easily cover the cost, let alone the environmental benefits.

One of the biggest mistakes we have made was to follow the Bauhaus trend of making everything so industrial, that any connection to nature was utterly lost.

We now know from endless scientific research, that people need a connection to nature to be healthy. Is it not time to demand better urban development, that is not just pretty on paper, but actually meets the needs of the people who will inhabit the areas?

Leigh Nicholson