The Danish landscape architect and executive director of the SLA studio is one of the most prominent voices in the current debate on the role of nature in cities. Her approach is based on more than a hundred projects involving parks, urban landscapes, public spaces, and large-scale urban structures across Europe, North America, and the Middle East. It is this breadth of experience that allows Skjold to talk about nature not as a supplement to urbanism, but as its key infrastructure. In her lecture as part of the Urban Talks series, she focused on why nature is essential for the future of cities and why, without thoughtful work with natural processes, cities cannot function in the long term.

Nature as an investment in health and resilience

Research has long confirmed that contact with nature reduces stress, promotes physical and mental health, and improves the quality of life in cities. For Mette Skjold, however, these are not secondary benefits, but a direct consequence of functioning ecosystems. “Human and ecosystem health are interconnected. We cannot address one without the other,” she points out. According to her, natural structures help cities cope with both climate change and everyday traffic: they retain rainwater, cool overheated environments, and increase resilience to extreme weather. At the same time, they create spaces that people naturally use and spend time in. “Technical solutions alone are not enough. Without nature, cities will become uninhabitable structures,” adds Skjold.

New nature: The city as a living system

One of the key concepts that the SLA studio has been working with for a long time is “new nature”. However, this is not a return to the ideal of “original nature”. “We don't want to imitate nature. We want to learn from it. New nature is about processes, how water flows, how species spread, how soil changes. The city must function as a living system,” explains Mette Skjold. In this concept, a park is not a finished object, but a framework for long-term development. The landscape is designed as an open, adaptive system capable of responding to climate change, intensive use, and natural ecological processes. Skjold considers the ability to respond and change to be one of the most important qualities that cities should regain. This is also linked to a fundamental change in the design process. “If you design the landscape after the architecture is finished, it's too late. Nature must be the first layer of the design,” she emphasizes.

The city in the context of global change

Mette Skjold places the topic of nature in a broader global context. Today, cities occupy approximately 3% of the Earth's surface but consume around 75% of its natural resources. At the same time, urbanization and construction directly affect almost 29% of endangered and near-threatened species. However, according to her, few figures illustrate the current situation as accurately as the fact that roughly half of the buildings that will be standing in 2050 have not yet been built. “We still have a huge opportunity to make a difference. And the key to this is not more technology, but better working with nature,” she points out. This is not about minor adjustments or adding green elements to finished projects. It is about whether we design cities as closed technical structures or as environments that are capable of functioning in a long-term relationship with natural systems.

An urban forest instead of a roundabout: Sankt Kjelds, Copenhagen

One of the most striking examples of this approach is the Sankt Kjelds Plads project in Copenhagen. Originally, it was a large roundabout—an asphalt area with heavy traffic. Today, it is an urban forest with nearly six hundred trees, rain gardens, and a network of public spaces that also function as climate infrastructure. The project has significantly reduced the temperature in the surrounding area, retains rainwater on site, and created a new habitat for plants and animals. However, a fundamental change has also taken place on a social level.

Working with water in the Mies van der Rohe Award nomination: Grønningen–Bispeparken, Copenhagen

The Grønningen–Bispeparken project also shows how climate adaptation can work as a living urban park. On an area of 20,000 m², the SLA studio transformed a neglected green strip between 1950s apartment blocks into a landscape that retains rainwater, supports biodiversity, and naturally brings the local community together. Eighteen retention basins can accommodate more than 3,000 m³ of rainfall without appearing technical—under normal conditions, they serve as spaces for relaxation, play and social interaction. The project was developed in close collaboration with local residents and artist Kerstin Bergendal, which is reflected in its open and changeable character. This is one of the reasons why it was among the 40 projects nominated for the Mies van der Rohe Award.

A wild park for people and birds: Nordør, Copenhagen

The planned Nordør coastal park in the Nordhavn area shows how working with so-called controlled wildness can work. The 30-hectare park is being created on artificially created terrain where vegetation spontaneously developed even before the design began. “Our task was not to design everything, but to decide where not to intervene,” describes Mette Skjold. Part of the area remains undisturbed and serves as a refuge for birds and other species, while other parts are open to the public and everyday use. The project also aims to become carbon positive, i.e., to capture more CO₂ than is generated by its implementation. Wildness here is not an aesthetic gesture, but a conscious strategy to create a resilient urban ecosystem.

A city that begins with landscape

SLA applies similar principles in large-scale master plans in Toronto, London, and the United Arab Emirates. In these projects, landscape not only determines the character of public space, but also the structure of new developments—it organizes movement, water management, and the microclimate of entire neighborhoods. According to Mette Skjold, it is precisely in the extreme climatic conditions of the Middle East that it is clear that working with nature is not a question of aesthetics, but of functionality and the long-term habitability of cities. Skjold therefore sees landscape architecture today as one of the key disciplines in the search for answers to current challenges. The debate about parks, urban forests, and natural structures is not a question of taste or preference, but of the ability of cities to function in a rapidly changing environment and offer a high quality of life in the long term. “If we put nature first, cities can function better climatically, socially, and economically,” she concludes.