Cultivating Shade Equity: Architecture and Urban Arboriculture in Miami

In cities facing exacerbating heat effects, urban tree count, provisions of shade, and public street life are intricately connected. The call for shade equity aims to address the uneven distribution of urban trees often correlated to structural inequalities. The struggle to increase canopy coverage in different cities despite decades of tree planting initiatives points to the critical roles of community engagement and education. Urban tree planting is both an environmental and a socio-economic undertaking in which architecture can shape a culture of reciprocal care between humans and arboreal life. Drawing from analyses of arboricultural guidelines and nursery guidebooks, field visits to horticultural nurseries in South Florida, and design case studies focusing on Miami, this paper explores the potentials of introducing decentralized, semi-permanent urban tree nurseries in municipal vacant lots. Shade house systems, commonly used in agriculture and horticulture in rural areas in the tropics, is well suited to create spaces for propagation, cultivation, distribution, composting, and learning – all can happen under the same shade roof.

Iñaki Abalos

Professor in Residence, Department of Architecture, GSD, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA

Orazio Carpenzano

Dean, Facoltà di Architettura, Sapienza Università di Roma, Rome

Yung Ho Chang

Professor of Architecture, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Winka Dubbeldam

Miller Professor and Chair of Architecture at Stuart Weitzman School of Design

Brian Ford

Professor Emeritus, Department of Architecture & Built Environment, University of Nottingham, Nottingham, UK

Hsinming Fung

Professor, SCI-Arc, Los Angeles CA, USA

Carlo Gasparrini

Professor of Urbanism, Dipartimento di Architettura, Universita' degli Studi di Napoli Federico II, Naples, Italy

Marco Imperadori

Professor of Design and Technological Innovation and Chancellor’s Delegate for the Far East, Politecnico di M

Rahul Mehrotra

Professor of Urban Design and Planning, GSD, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA

Antoine Picon

Professor of the History of Architecture and Technology, GSD, Harvard University, Cambridge MA, USA

Mónica Ponce de León

Dean, School of Architecture, Princeton University, Princeton NJ, USA

Jane Rendell

Professor, The Bartlett School of Architecture, University College London, London, UK

Peter Rich

Professor of Architecture, Witwatersrand University, Johannesburg, South Africa

Michael Speaks

Dean, School of Architecture, Syracuse University, Syracuse NY, USA

Martha Thorne

Hon FRIBA, Hon COAM, Director of Strategic and Institutional Relations, the Gallery Institute, Portugal

C David Tseng

Dean, College of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Chiao-Tung University, Taipei, Taiwan

Li Xiangning

Deputy Dean, College of Architecture and Urban Planning, Tongji University, Shanghai, China

Cultivating Shade Equity: Architecture and Urban Arboriculture in Miami

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