ABSTRACT
Enhancing access to urban green spaces is crucial for high-density cities to ensure a healthy and safe urban environment. Densification can be an excellent opportunity for green space provision in already dense environments. However, given the complexity of implementing densification, ensuring inclusive access to green space benefits is challenging. This chapter aims to contribute to a better understanding of how urban greening and densification can be combined to ensure a dense and healthy city for all. I do so by arguing that the governance conditions of densification affect how access to green spaces is produced and for whom, linking green space development with the power relations and institutions that shape densification. I illustrate my argument based on empirical insights from a case study in Utrecht, the Netherlands, as a relevant context to analyze the implications of greening and densifying high-density cities. The case study shows how the exclusionary design of the project's green spaces was not an unexpected outcome but rather a necessary compromise related to a context of high land prices and powerful economic interests. While densification shows great potential to advance urban greening in high-density contexts, the prioritization of the economic function of green spaces jeopardizes to what extent the benefits of urban green can be enjoyed by all.
