Overview
A shift towards more biking and walking, public transport, car-pooling and self-driven cars, prohibitive cost and outright ban will delete one of the most familiar and least exciting urban pictures of the past half century: street sides crammed with parked cars.
The trees shelter human spaces from the (emission free) city traffic, the soil Provides water retention capacity against urban flooding, while soft mobility, commercial and social activities take place under the shade of trees in summer and on the Snow-and ice-free History aside in winter, thanks to a better use of district heating. Commute, bike, walk, shop or just enjoy the street sides of your city, year-round and without limits.
"Hug the Streets" proposes and prepares the ground for a transition from car to people-centred urban design and planning. This project will explore the value and the possibilities of creating a green multifunctional infrastructure city parking trees where today cars are parked, the tree-parking. The project wants to exploit the powerful symbolic value of trees as innovation agents That promote the citizens' wellbeing and stimulate visions given between the city infrastructures for soft mobility, energy & water.
Concentrating on selected Norwegian cities, the project will work on three intertwined scales: the human, the street and the city scale. It will map the many stakeholders of multiple urban infrastructures and involvement. It will map practices and interests, conflicts and visions given two identify opportunities and develop a portfolio of concepts for multifunctional green infrastructures. Finally, "Hug the Streets" will explore the value of a city-wide rollout of such infrastructures, and develop and equip stakeholders with the mean for fostering the transition towards it.