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Multi-million funding to transform town centres and neighbourhoods

The Mayor of London and Transport for London (TfL) have today announced a new multi-million pound funding programme that will transform town centres and neighbourhoods into more attractive, accessible and people-friendly public spaces.

A new £85.9 million Liveable Neighbourhoods programme will give boroughs the opportunity to bid for funding for long-term schemes and construction that will encourage walking, cycling and the use of public transport, in line with the Mayor’s Healthy Streets approach.

The programme will provide grants of between £1 million and £10 million for a wide range of community-supported projects, potentially including the creation of green spaces, new cycling infrastructure, redesigned junctions and the widening of walking routes to improve access to local shops, businesses and public transport. By supporting projects which have local support, the funding will particularly target schemes that are shown to improve boroughs and reduce car trips – improving health and air quality.

The Liveable Neighbourhoods programme is a key part of the Mayor’s draft Transport Strategy, which last month detailed plans to create a fairer, greener, healthier and more prosperous city by making London’s streets more welcoming and encouraging active travel and public transport.

The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said “I’ve set out bold plans to transform the way Londoners move around our city to improve our health, air quality and future prosperity. London’s boroughs are key partners in delivering this vision and through this new funding we can make a real difference by supporting the projects that local people want to see. This will ensure that the improvements really work for our local communities, transforming our town centres and successfully encouraging many more Londoners to walk, cycle or use public transport for the good of their health and our environment.”

Tompion Platt, Head of Policy, Living Streets said: “London is a successful city, but it can become a city with a far better quality of life. Moves have been made recently to make London more liveable, but its streets are still car-dominated. This discourages walking, causes poor air quality and undermines people’s health. The ambition to create healthier, more liveable neighbourhoods across London with walking at their heart is welcome step.”

 

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Asia’s first vertical forest will be completed in 2018

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Nanjing Green Towers, promoted by Nanjing Yang Zi State-owned National Investment Group Co.ltd, will be the first Vertical Forest built in Asia.

Located in the Nanjing Pukou District (an area destined to lead the modernization of southern Jiangsu and the development of the Yangtze River economic area), the two towers are characterized by the interchange of green tanks and balconies, following the prototype of Milan’s Vertical Forest.

Along the facades, 600 tall trees, 500 medium-sized trees (for a total amount of 1,100 trees from 23 local species) and 2,500 cascading plants and shrubs will cover a 6,000 Sqm area. A real vertical forest, contributing to regenerate local biodiversity, that will provide a 25 tons of CO2 absorption each year and will produce about 60 kg of Oxygen per day.

The taller tower, 200 metres high, crowned on the top by a green lantern, will host offices – from the 8th floor to the 35th – and it will include a museum, a green architecture school and a private club on the rooftop. The second tower, 108 metres high, will provide a Hyatt hotel with 247 room of different sizes (from 35 sqm to 150 sqm) and a swimming pool on the rooftop. The 20 metres high podium, will  host commercial, recreational and educative functions, including multi-brands shops,a food market, restaurants, conference hall and exhibition spaces.

Nanjiing Vertical Forest project, which is scheduled to be finished in 2018, is the third prototype, after Milan and Lausanne, of a project about urban forestation and demineralisation that Stefano Boeri Architects will develop all over the world and in particular in other Chinese cities such as Shijiazhuang, Liuzhou, Guizhou, Shanghai and Chongqing.

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