Landscape architects discuss urban woods

(ANSA) - Rome, February 15 - The return of the forest to urban areas is the focus of a two-day study session at the Benetton Foundation study and research centre in Treviso on February 18-19, organisers said Monday.
    Landscape architects Peter Walker, designer of the forest of oak trees at the 9/11 Memorial in New York, and Berliner Thilo Folkerts are among the leading professionals due to attend. "There is a persistent need to return to the forest in urban areas," Luca Carra of Italia Nostra, one of the authors of the 1974 Milan project Boscoincittà, told ANSA. "Not just ecologically but because that is how to create landscape." "Boscoincittà began as a challenge, with the help of volunteers, the scouts, associations. In 5-6 years the area of forest cover had visibly grown," Carra said.
    "In this way environmental education initiatives, cycle routes, wildlife areas sprung up. Today it is a much-loved area of Milan, that brings residents into contact with a green culture," he continued.
    Such green areas have not only an environmental but also an economic impact, for example by increasing local property values, Carra said. "A Bocconi (university) study calculated that in 40 years Boscoincittà has cost 9 million euros but generated 40 million euros," he explained.