Breathing Infrastructures: Green Barriers for Air Quality, Well-Being and Community Mobilisation in Buenos Aires

This interdisciplinary project combines expertise from the social sciences, materials engineering and landscape design. It adopts a participatory approach seeking to involve diverse communities in the planning, construction and upkeep of green barriers in city-run primary schools. The research team aims to demonstrate the efficacy of green barriers in filtering air pollution out of schoolyards to reduce environmental risks on children’s health and development as well as the multiple social and ecological co-benefits that this form of urban greenery can produce when designed effectively and with multipurpose intentionality. Results from actually built green barriers in three schools will be used to produce business models and policy guidelines promoting the broader adoption of green barriers in cities of the Global South.

Research Team: Dr Juan Miguel Kanai, University of Sheffield; Ms Liliana Fabio, University of Buenos Aires; Professor Beverley Inkson, University of Sheffield; Professor Anna Jorgensen, University of Sheffield