Building Green
Building Green
Ladina Schöpf
#066 - Mikael Colville-Andersen: Planting Trees as Medicine in Ukraine’s War Zone
57 minutes Posted Nov 8, 2025 at 1:00 pm.
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Mikael Colville-Andersen planted trees and built entire parks  in the middle of a missile zone… and hundreds of people showed up to help him.

Mikael is a Danish urban designer who’s spent the last three years doing something almost unthinkable—building community spaces in the middle of a war zone. 

In Kyiv, Ukraine, he turned an empty, concrete square into what became the world’s largest tactical urbanism project. He watched as hundreds of citizens stepped into a space they didn’t know they needed.

He calls planting trees in Kyiv “medicine,” not just for the city, but for the soul. And when you hear him talk about bottom-up design, you realize - he’s not here to beautify cities. He’s here to humanize them.

This is the story of how bikes, benches, and painted crosswalks can reclaim dignity, resistance, and joy - even during war.

To explore more about Mikael Colville-Andersen and his work, you can follow him on instagram www.instagram.com/colvilleandersen, or visit his website www.colville-andersen.com.

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