Can Gibraltar be a Modern-Day Garden City?

The Key to a Sustainable Urban Future

By Annabelle Mor-Codali
It was British urban planner Ebenezer Howard in his 1898 book “Garden Cities of To-Morrow” who had a vision to design and plan cities that offered a peaceable, liveable environment, replete with nature and open spaces. His ideas grew out of the Industrial Revolution and were, in part, a reaction to the condition of workers in London living in slums and squalor at the time. His concept gave way to the modern garden city movement and has impacted today’s urban planning standards.

He did go on to build two garden cities: Letchworth Garden City and Welwyn Garden City, both in Hertfordshire, England. Letchworth was initially quite successful, but Welwyn, built just 20 miles from London, quickly became an ordinary suburb. Little did he foresee at the time that tree lined avenues and low density housing would be quickly filled with automobile traffic and densely urban sprawl in city centres.

I think that the utopian design in Howard’s book and ideas might be complicated to establish unless buildings are razored to the ground and design is started from scratch but the concept of making cities more sustainable by having more pedestrians and cyclists on the road and having green transportation and green buildings as an achievable aim is an important concept.

A modern “garden city” must retain its unique identity, heritage, and culture that can attract industry and tourism to its town. Tomorrow’s garden cities will be about living in harmony with nature and conserving scarce natural resources as population growth continues to increase.

Singapore is one of the best known garden cities worldwide for its dramatic urban transformation. Billing itself today as “City in a Garden” (rather than garden city), the greening of Singapore went hand-in-hand with a massive social and cultural transformation headed up by the government. Singapore reinvented themselves from the smaller, traditional urbanisation patterns and replaced them with a vision of a clean, well-oiled city with appropriately placed green spaces. Locals can reclaim and green public spaces in creative ways by creating small urban mini-parks with plants and seating known as Parklets.

Changes to a city can be citizen-initiated public efforts as can be seen in many towns or radical and top-down overhauls of infrastructure by the government. Community involvement will always have a huge impact on the success of any project.

More than half the world’s population now lives in cities, with populations expected to rise in the years to come. The dramatic rise in urbanisation does not come without challenges to our environment and the health of our communities. Gibraltar must face decisions of improving the liveability and resilience of our community by creating healthier urban ecosystems, integrated green open spaces and recreational facilities into modern cities with more active lifestyles which can help combat stress and obesity. The World Health Organization has advocated minimum standards of green spaces per urban dweller set at 9 square metres.

Making space for nature in cities has tangible health benefits including a healthier environment by cleaning our air and reducing the amount of carbon dioxide released from industries and automobile use and improves human health, by increasing resiliency and ecological diversity.

WHY SHOULD WE GREEN GIBRALTAR? Green spaces play a crucial role in urban areas and provide essential food, shelter, and nesting sites that are vital havens for our wildlife. As our population grows and our streets and buildings expand, Gibraltar’s green areas become even more important in the defence against climate change and help protect our natural world for future generations. Green spaces help our health, our wellbeing and our environment.

Promotes exercise, tackles pollution and helps to manage temperature in cities.

There are many studies promoting spending time outdoors as it has profound benefits, with studies showing that gardening can significantly reduce depression and anxiety. The University of Tokyo's research prompted calls for governments and health organisations to promote gardening. This evidence led to an increase in GPs prescribing gardening to their patients. In the latest Netflix program “Live to 100, Secrets of Blue Zones” explains the benefits of gardening and the outdoors to populations health and well-being. Several studies by the Royal Horticultural Society has also revealed the real benefits to aged-school children and adults on their productivity and mental and physical health.

Gibraltar offers various opportunities to engage with the environment, including our Nature Reserve and the Alameda Botanic Gardens hosts weekly volunteer sessions open to all who want to help maintain the gardens, enjoy time outdoors, and connect with like-minded individuals.

Estepona town centre has in just over a decade transformed the town into a walking garden city with the help of the city council and the community working together. The ongoing project transformed dowdy tower blocks into eye catching frescoes and flower pots of all colours of the rainbow decorating every wall of every street with hanging baskets, verdant verges and floral borders perfuming the air.

The intention was to shine on the town’s forgotten neighbourhoods and attract more foreign tourists and make it a beautiful area for locals to live in.

The giant project included not just gardening but cleaning out and disinfecting pipes and serving ornamental fountains. Water features that are work of arts and photogenic murals beautifies the town. Even the urban beaches have been landscaped with buildings that blend into and complement their environment with plenty of trees and garden parks amongst them. The beautiful promenade is modern, efficient and pedestrian friendly.

Estepona’s beaches have for many years earned the coveted prestigious Blue Flag a sign of excellence in beaches, but now holidaymakers are also greeted with over 400,000 flowers over 200 acres. Could Gibraltar’s urban sprawl take the form of a “garden city"? Let us all start talking and asking the questions we need to ask and putting in the work to make it possible.

If you would like to make a difference join us and take part in the Green Gibraltar Competition by the Gibraltar Horticultural Society.

On February 1, the GHS launched the Green Gibraltar Competition to encourage the beautification of our outdoor spaces and create positive interactions between people, places and plants. Whether you’re an individual greener, part of an organisation, a local club, business or school, we’d love to see your ideas come to life. We’ve provided some ideas to get you started but the possibilities are endless. So, gather your friends and neighbours and get creative!
● Organise a community clean-up day.
● Improve your office area with new plants or wall hangings,
● Paint your outdoor wall or add a mural.
● Plant flowers, trees, or shrubs.
● Add a bench or picnic area to your communal space.
● Create a new community garden.

So if you have an unloved or underused outdoor space and would like to unite your community and make a difference? Talk to your neighbours or your work colleagues and find those places that could be a little oasis from the urban areas we are surrounded by. Enter our Green Gibraltar competition to win £500.00, and turn an eyesore into an oasis!

The deadline to enter is May 31, so don't wait. We’ve got all the know-how and ideas to get you started.

For more information please visit our website www.gibraltarhorticulturalsociety or WhatsApp us on 54004737.