ARCH+ 263 explores urban nature as a political, ecological and design challenge. Through essays, interviews and case studies, this issue redefines how we understand the relationship between city, landscape and climate.

When urban nature is invoked, it often appears as a green add-on: a remedy for urban deficits, a technical solution in the context of climate adaptation, or an aesthetic upgrade. Such a view narrows the perspective. It reduces nature to a function and obscures the fact that cities are already ecological formations in which soil, water, plants, infrastructures, and political decisions are inseparably intertwined. Urban nature is not a retrospective corrective to the city, but an expression of its material, social, and historical conditions.

This issue of ARCH+ on urban nature therefore proposes a shift in perspective: away from conceiving urban nature as decorative embellishment or compensatory measure, toward understanding it as a political and democratic project. Central to this inquiry are questions of soil, ecological justice, and the role of the design disciplines - particularly landscape architecture - in the Anthropocene. Urban nature emerges here as both a collective resource and a site of conflict, where the socio-ecological future of the city is negotiated.

ARCH+ 263 explores urban nature as a political, ecological and design challenge. Through essays, interviews and case studies, this issue redefines how we understand the relationship between city, landscape and climate.

When urban nature is invoked, it often appears as a green add-on: a remedy for urban deficits, a technical solution in the context of climate adaptation, or an aesthetic upgrade. Such a view narrows the perspective. It reduces nature to a function and obscures the fact that cities are already ecological formations in which soil, water, plants, infrastructures, and political decisions are inseparably intertwined. Urban nature is not a retrospective corrective to the city, but an expression of its material, social, and historical conditions.

This issue of ARCH+ on urban nature therefore proposes a shift in perspective: away from conceiving urban nature as decorative embellishment or compensatory measure, toward understanding it as a political and democratic project. Central to this inquiry are questions of soil, ecological justice, and the role of the design disciplines - particularly landscape architecture - in the Anthropocene. Urban nature emerges here as both a collective resource and a site of conflict, where the socio-ecological future of the city is negotiated.