11 Mid-Latitude Cities

Year of Completion: ongoing

Project Location: Northern Hemisphere

The research has been supported by the GSD Dean’s Junior Faculty Research Grant awarded in 2020 to Jungyoon Kim. Titled “Lost Nature of Eleven Mid Latitude Cities,” Eleven of the highly developed cities in the Northern hemisphere were examined in terms of their lost natures throughout the respective urbanization between the 19th to 20th Centuries. The list of the cities includes New York, Seoul, Boston, Madrid, Paris, Shanghai, Vienna, Berlin, London, Tokyo, and Helsinki. The significant milestone moments of each city’s history were identified first (e.g., introducing the grid system to New York). Then, the nature of the time was overlaid with the current city map to see which natural elements were lost and which are remaining. The eventual aim of this mapping is to find out what kind of rewilding strategy will be effective for each city to mitigate the ongoing climatic challenges, such as urban flood, heat island, and lowering groundwater.