Imagine walking around in the scorching afternoon of a hot, sunny day. Walking along the barren street with the harsh heat exhausting you further and further with every step you take, you spot a tree with a large canopy. Underneath this tree, you see a lemonade stall with a few people gathered around it, pausing, resting, and refreshing. As you move closer to the lemonade stall, you notice a swarm of people rushing towards the bus that stops nearby, waiting to get in as another gets down from the bus.

Here, the tree you see on the otherwise barren streetscape is not simply just a tree occupying space; often masked by the everydayness of our streets, stand many such trees that silently aid this very everydayness. The shade of these trees may offer a place of rest for the worn out, create a space for people to interact, mingle and loiter, or even act as a spatial anchor to other activities.

What does shade mean to the city?

Shade and Social Interaction

Trees with dense canopies provide shade. The comfort of this shade creates a place of rest, a point of respite. When this happens, shade inherently creates spaces that allow social interactions to flourish ...

Shade and Placemaking

When shade from tree canopies creates spaces that facilitate frequent gatherings and social interactions, it creates spaces that come to hold a community-level significance. Often, these are spaces where locals - residents or others - gather for leisure, rest or pause ...

Shade and Memory

As discussed above, a tree, along with the extent of its shade, carves out a ‘place’ within a ‘space’, and acts as a landmark in a spatial setting. Trees, unless subjected to tree-felling activities, also act as permanent elements of any spatial context ...

Trees as Anchors

Trees, as well as the shade they provide, act as anchors that allow several activities to take place. While trees themselves act as spatial anchors that provide elements such as branches, trunks, etc., that can support various activities ...

Shade and Tree Worship

Apart from creating places within spaces, allowing activities to anchor themselves and facilitating leisure at the community level, many trees also provide several ecological and medicinal benefits ...

Shade and Well-Being

Shade supports and facilitates well-being in several ways. First, trees providing medicinal value (such as neem) offer several benefits to those occupying the shade they provide. For example, when footpath businesses are set up under the shade of neem trees ...