‘A perfect symbiosis’: planting vines and other ways hot cities are creating cool spaces

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Just a single vine stem growing up the side of a house can offer a lot of shade. In the sherry houses, where this has been the practice for more than 60 years, the leaves from a single vine form a canopy of 60 sq metres.

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Now the local authority plans to extend the canopy from the four streets in the pilot scheme to 20, linking the 14 parks and green spaces in the old city over an area of 1.5 sq miles (4 sq km).

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La Calle de las Mandalas is a similar crochet project in the Andalusian town of La Línea de la Concepción, but instead of squares the canopy consists of 860 round mandalas joined together. The mandalas are the work of the La Línea Association of Crocheters.

In many Spanish streets and squares, shade is provided by sheets of canvas stretched between poles of buildings. In Calle Santa María in Valladolid, in north-west Spain, residents have taken this a step further, creating a series of awnings planted with gypsophila and other plants that are slung on cables between buildings, providing shade and hanging gardens.

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