Sponge city principle for smart cities: Smart soil for healthy trees and urban C.

Invisible basis: The third winning project of the URBAN MENUS Smart City Calls (urbanmenus.com/platform-en/), announced by the Austrian-Argentine architect and urban planner Laura P. Spinadel, was determined. In the Smart City Products & Services category, the prize goes to the sponge city principle and landscape architect Stefan Schmidt. He advocates that street beds are built in such a way that the trees grow optimally and people can live happily in a healthy urban climate - in line with URBAN MENUS.

"We have never planted as many trees as we do today, and we have never let trees as young as this die." says the landscape architect DI Prof. OStR Stefan Schmidt from the Federal College and Research Institute for Horticulture in Vienna - Schönbrunn. The soil under the streets does not have enough cavities for the roots because it lacks air pores and water. "That's why the trees sit in a kind of small flower pot and die after 20 years at the latest."

However, trees are the city's air conditioning systems and develop their effect as the tree tops become more lush - “Without trees there cannot be a tolerable climate in the city. If we want trees that will protect us in 2080, we have to plant them today and we have to plant them to get old. " This requires adequate underground supply systems that also transport water.

Stefan Schmidt brought the idea for a solution from Scandinavia to Austria: In a working group founded in 2018 under the auspices of the Austrian Society for Landscape Planning and Landscape Architecture, he is researching the "Sponge City" system: According to this system, streets are given a substructure with a substrate, the trees offers about 30% cavities and can store water. Local types of rock can be used as a substrate. This promotes sustainable regional material cycles.

This type of soil loosening has been used in Scandinavia for more than 30 years. The concept is already being implemented in Austria: the “Sponge Street” in Graz. In the Seestadt Aspern Vienna, an underground sponge structure is planned near Seebogen.

The project was recognized by URBAN MENUS as a symbol of how many essential structures for sustainable cities with a high quality of life and residence only exist in the dark and because it stands for the central aspect of forward-looking planning. The potential for smart cities goes beyond the visible - precisely such approaches should be mentioned in front of the curtain.

Find out more about the sponge city principle in a video from URBAN MENUS at urbanmenus.com/sponge-city-for-urban-trees/.

First spark for something big - the URBAN MENUS Smart City Calls are still open to everyone who is working on mutual visions and solutions for a liveable urban future.

In the coming months, more exciting products, services and city projects from all over the world will be presented:

The Smart City Chief Call ((urbanmenus.com/platform-en/smart-city-chief-call-en/) is open to mayors with special urban visions that Calling Smart City Products & Services ((urbanmenus.com/platform-en/smart-city-products-services-call-en/) for intelligent products and services. The submission is an opportunity for a presentation within the URBAN MENUS 3D smart city platform, an impact analysis, an exchange of experience and knowledge and a long-term cooperation.

What's so special: The calls are about working together on an equal footing. The URBAN MENUS team is committed to forward-looking urban and regional planning and is looking for employees. A shared digital workspace for smart city projects is growing.

The goals: To make actors and successes visible, to facilitate national and international cooperation and to show new ways in which a collaborative vision can arise by harmonizing different approaches and implementing it successfully.

A new dimension of participatory, sustainable planning of our living space - resilient even in times of crisis and to prevent future crises

Contact

Dr. Mag. Dr. Arc. Arq. Laura P. Spinadel

+4314038757,[email protected]
urbanmenus.com/platform-en/