A review of Natura Urbana: Ecological Constellations in Urban Space by Matthew Gandy.
By Anjulie Rao
At Tempelhof Airport in Berlin, the skylark has found new nesting grounds in the grasslands between abandoned runways after much of its natural habitat has been developed or disturbed elsewhere in Europe. Photo by Matthew Gandy.
There are more than 30,000 vacant lots in the city of Chicago?remnants of urban renewal?s disastrous execution and disinvestment. Where buildings once stood, acres of new life have emerged. Many of those empty lots have become overgrown?small prairies where remnants of building foundations peek out from plots of seeding grasses; thick, tender lamb?s-quarter; and purple flowering chicory. The lots are home to rats, skunks, raccoons, and the occasional possum. Chicago, like many postindustrial cities, grapples with how to develop these spaces, calling them wastelands. Matthew Gandy, a professor of cultural and historical geography at King?s College in London, disagrees with that characterization. These seemingly unproductive lots are rich with life. His new book, Natura Urbana: Ecological Constellations in Urban Space, complicates vacant and postindustrial spaces through explorations of biodiversity in urban nature. Gandy carefully dissects the social and political roles nature plays within cities. He makes a case for wildness, seeing it as a remedy for the at times violent control municipalities and landscape professionals enact on the land while seek...