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8/6/2019 Hans Lorzing-retele Verzi

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Municipia: Konferenzna ... : BRINGING A PlECE OF LANDSCAPE INTO THE CITY Page 1 of 13Municipia Iinfothek I Konferenznachlesen I ECLAS I Content

DESIGN OF URBAN OPEN SPACE: BRINGING A PlECEOF LANDSCAPE INTO THE CITYHan Lorzing EindhovenIntroduction

/ Througout the centuries, city planners use green open spaces as an integrated part of the urbanfabric. They provide a background for recreational activities for which the builtup area does nothave enough space. They also contribute to the quality of the environment in the broadest sence, asthey regulate the extremes in urban temperature and filter air pollution through the leaves of theirtrees. They are agreat way to articulate an urban area into measurable entities. And, last but notleast, they function as a reminder for the urbanite that the rural areas are never far away. To put itin simple words: urban open spaces are nothing more and nothing less than a piece of landscape inthe city._~Jand.scapeof patterllsThe green infrastructure of a city can adopt a variety of spatial pattems. These pattems can beextremely important in the way they structure the urban fabric. Some pattems are direct1y inspiredby the originallandscape in which the city was built. Others are overtly f!l;armade, showing the.,~d.esil"eo create new green infrastructures as part of an overall urban plan..!1will discuss a numberof archetypical pattems-thatcan be found in different European cities. Morphologically, we candistinguish between:

o isolated elements, or "dots";o linear elements, or "lines";o area elements, or "zones".

For their use in urban planning, it is necessary to translate these rather theoretical pattems intorealistic park structures. The dots represent a structure of one or more iso!.ated parks, situated inthe mJ!


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Municipia: Konferenzna ... :BRINGING A PlECE OF LANDSCAPE INTO THE CITY Page 2 of 13elments take the shape of a green-lined river meandering through a city. The course ofthe LeeRiver in Northeastern London, the Isar River through Munich and the (old) Danube in Vienna canserve as examples of a ribbon-lik~~en structure. In our times, ribbon solutions are created onlyby exception; they represent a classical solution, developed in the late nieteenth or early twentiethcentury as part of a large urban lay-out around an existing river.The more complicated patterns of linear elements form a h~twork' ofI~9.r~~!!(:m,~lJ!.l11(s.hey aretypically urban designers' solutions, created to control a new urban environment. Famous examplesof green networks in urban planning are the designs for Chandighar (India) and Milton Keynes(England). In the Dutch new town ofLelystad and in the Bijlmermeer residential area ofAmsterdam, we find the intriguing combination of green 'veins' and bicycleoutes as a moremodest network solution.An interesting combination of 'ribbon' and 'network'is offered by the Pa~ILSy~t


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"A-.Scattered: the patchwork

Linear: the ribbon

Area: the belt

Linear: the network

Area: the wedg eTo give a short characteristic, we might say that the patchwork represents a classical solution inwhich built-up area and green open space are seen as totally different entities, whereas thenetwork, the belt and the wedge mean typical planners solutions that became popular with theintroduction ofmethodical town and country planning from the beginning ofthe twentieth century.The latter three differ greatly in their effects onthe urban environment: thebelt stands forrestrictive planning while thewedge and the network stand for a more open-ended way ofplanning. Finally, theribbon and, to a certain extend the wedge are the solutions that dependlargely on the use of natural and patrimonial elements in the urban environment.Summarizing, we might say that thepatchwork, the ribbon and the inner belt are typical for theclassic city at the end ofthe 19th century. Thewedge, the (outer) belt and the network arecharacteristic for the modem, planned cities ofthe 20th century. These archetypes are shown infigure 2.

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Figure 'lA: park patterns in the classical city:the patchwork, the ribbon, the inner be~

Figure 28: pat1


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Ribbonelemenls

~PatchWJrkelemenlS----- Seltelemenls

A landscape of symbols

~NetwOrk elemenls

Bringing a piece of landscape into the city means inevitably that the urban open spaces will bereduced to a preudo-landscape, bearing only references to existing (or once-existing) landscapes;in the European situation, preserving originallandscapes in an urban context is virtually impossible.T~e op~_n.~p_ace~~~omesas,ymbolic landscape"designed to create a desired atmosphere in the city.Park architecture has always been using borrowed or artificial forms, elements and materials. Thefirst gardens were deliberately artificial in their appearance, as they were meant to contrast sharplywith the surrounding landscape or town. Still, even in these simple, man-made grid patterngardens, nature was present in the planting material that filled the box-lined squares. InRenaissanceandBaroquegardens, submissionotnature became obvious as the g,ardens weredesigned as an ~xpres~!l.QfpQwer: power to relgIi-ovei-a nation as well as over nature. Thevictory over nature was translated into a network of straight avenues, laid out over the territory toshow the ruler's span of control. The park of Versailles, of course, marks the ultimate height of thisVlSlon.I~~e~nth.century, the rise ofthe English landscape style changed a lot in the relationbetween man and nature. Nature was seen as a fri~lx-P.Qw.er, no longer man's enemy but a usefulally. This translated into a different type of ga~ns, meant to create the atmosphere of an Englishcountry environment, especially a river valley landscape.The IJlid:-n!!t~en.th~~IltyIY saw the development of the urban park, layd out for the needs of thecitizen. ~n..8t?~ ~~~ .theparktheexpression.,of individu.al.weahlL~!!~tQ.q~~r. Instead, it became asign ofthe civil s~: the presence of an urban park showed that the city cared for its citizens inrecognizing the need for a leisure environment. The early urban parks were set up in the style ofthe eighteenth century landscape gardens. The winding paths, the serpentine ponds, the round walkand even the clumps of trees were there as if nothing had changed. The only conspicuously missingelement was the country house in the middle. What changed, of course, was the way in which thepark was used: the country nobleman and his friends made way for a crowd ofurban citizens,

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Municipia: Konferenzna ... : BRINGING A PlECE OF LANDSCAPE INTO THE CIT t Page 6 of 13mainly the bourgeois classes in the beginning.Around the last turn ofthe century, the ultimate step was taken in the popularization ofthe urbanpark. Idealistic .~Q1iticials and park desi~~r.s, often adhering to the then new socialist ideas,decided that the worker should have access to the same privileges as the bourgeois, among themthe right to spend their time of leisure in an urban park. This development, of ten referred to as the':Volkspark MQye.m~IJt",originated in Scandinavia and Germany but spread alI over Europe.Essential in the lay-out ofthe Volkspark is the use oflarge open spaces, originalIy designed forworker's rallies and other mass activities such as sports gahterings. These were activities that hadnever before been envisaged in park design. It is by no means exaggerated to say that the style ofthe Volkspark is unique in its kind, as an expres sion ofthe contemporary architectural motto "formfolIows function".In the park typology used in this presentation, the Volkspark brought a variety of'wedge', 'belt' and'network' type ofparks. This is no wonder, as the Volkspark designers often worked closelytogether with urban designers, cooperating in creating the Modernist city as promoted by the'Congres International d'Architecture Moderne'.In~e second half Qf the ~eEtieth century, the Volkspark Movement became less important. Onthe one hand, the political ideaiTsmtflatlid created the Volkspark gradualIy faded away. On theother, the use of urban parks changed with the changing needs of the working class. It has of tenbeen said that the success of the emancipation of the working class resulted in its dissappearance;in the use of parks this can be demonstrated by the fact that the mass activities made way for more

~ individual ways of recreation. This change in park use can be seen as one of the reasons why parkI design changed in the second half ofthe twentieth century.Other developments in the second half of the twentieth century also influenced the design of urbanparks. The most important of these are the rising interest in the protection of our naturalenvironment and a similar attitude towards our cultural heritage. No doubt, both wilI be influencedby the recognition that nature and heritage are rapidly becoming rare sources in our modemsociety, and that we should make our best efforts to stop the deterioration. The importance of thismovement is shown by the growing membership of organizations like Greenpeace, the NationalTrust or the Dutch society ofNatuurmonumenten (with over a million members on a population of15 million, the latter must be one of the proportionalIy largest organizations in its kind in theworld!).The proliferation of new nature projects in my country is another sign of growing interest inecology, in this case not only the interest of individuals and pressure groups but of governmentbodies as welI. Throughout The Netherlands, we see examples of carefulIy reconstruction oflandscape elements like the famous 'remeandering' of streams; large areas in the countl)Side are 1being reconstructed along ecotectural principles and, last but not least!-.~~.enin city parks designers I

t to introduce a piece of 'miniature wildlife' represented b recenti reereated stone age cattle, _ ~~peacefulIy grazmg ItSway through t e park an ItSvisitors. 1 ."'~-------_._._---------------,AApart from this need for strong symbols, referring to a natural and/or historical environment, theuse of city parks has been changing in the past decades. As we saw, the originallayout of theVolkspark became outdated because ofthe demise ofthe large public rallies and the disappearance

ofthe organized crowd. Along this line, we can observe the following recent trends in park use. ,{... '"1 o A shift from (larger) team sports towards individual and small team sports: the need f, [ !''intor soccer fields is dramaticalIy decreasing while tennis and golf are stilI on the rise. !. fIo A rising interest in hyperactive (and, of course, hyperindividualistic) activities: the- -----.~-~..,.,._~_.



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Municipia: Konferenzna ... : BRINGING A PIECE OF LANDSCAPE INTO THE CITY Page 7 of 13social group ofbicycle riders is making way (litteralIy) for the lonely inline skater,zooming across the park in the splendid isolation ofhis walkman. Here we have atrend that originated in the USA, where jogging, in small groups or totalIyindividualIy, has become the number one park activity.

o In general, a shift from area-bound recreation towards route-bound recreation: theround walk from the English gardens is coming back as an informal (and unplanned)winding trail through the park, used to walk the dog or to 'explore nature'.

o An interesting change in Northwestern European parks is the growing 'need forshade': in the past, people would sit (or better: lie) in the sun as much as possible,while now the trend seems towards a place in the shade to be protected from both thesun and the looks of other visitors. This trend may be introduced by the Mediterraneanmigrants, who had the habit of picknicking under the trees in city parks. A more directreason may be the growing awareness of the risk of skin cancer.

To put things simple, we might say that modern park use has a tendency towards individual, routebound and active forms of recreation. Park architecture should translate these trends into a designthat caters for these needs.What new design styles should evolve from the new trends in park use? It is certain that the parkvisitor is hardly specific in his or her ideas on park architecture. Simple, practical demands like'good pavement', 'logical routing', 'enough shade' and 'a feeling of safety' go together with tienotion that parks should provide an experience. Through variation in forms, materials and colorsthe park design must help to create an environment that is absolutely different from thesurrounding city and, if possible, from alI other city parks as welI.At the present turn ofthe century, three trends seem to coexist in the (re)designing of urban openspaces. They are:

o the naturallandscape, referring to (and sometimes recreating) an 'ecologicalIycorrect' setting for indigenous species, ecotopes and landforms;

o the authentic landscape, referring to (and often conserving) historical, man-maderural areas with their specific settlement patterns and parcellations;

o the eclectic landscape, using design elements from the entire history of garden andpark architecture to provide a perfect background for recreational activities in theurban environment.

These trends are visualized infigure 4. This figure is an adapted vers ion of my theory on the mainsources of inspiration regarding park and landscpe design (Lcrzing, 1992).

Figure 4: Trends in turn-of-the-century parkand landscape design based uponforeign formsand materials

)r

Park desi~ lJy~ation: eC!ecticism1



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1based uponindigenousforms andmaterials

inspired by. human cu~ure inspired bynature ~

At first sight, the first two trends together seem to be in contrast with the third. In reality, alI threerepresent different aspects ofthe same thing: the need for a landscape in the city that symbolizeselements from the wor1d outside and that, at the same time, facilitates existing and new leisureactivities. This: can easily be demonstrated by pointing out that there is no such thing as a 'naturallandscape' in the city: real nature (whatever thet may have been in an industrialized countries) hasdisappeared centuries ago from the place where our cities have been built and our parks arenothing more that nature on our conditions. The same goes for the 'authentic landscape': the fewelements from our cultural heritage that are left in the urban fabric, such as old roads, farmhouses,field patterns and streams, are becoming more and more becoming 'objets trou...es', lost in an alienenvironment. The use of natural or historical elements in urban open spaces does not mean thatthey shoukd be 'correct' by any standard, as their presence is merely symbolic. In this way, they donot differ largely from the deliberately planned eclectic landscape elements. To put it sharply, giventheir alienating context 'natural' and 'historical' elements in park architecture are in fact just asartificial as their 'eclectic' counterparts.It should be noted that most visitors have only a vague and often contorted notion of 'nature' and'landscape'. Ifthey were exposed to an environment that was carefulIy put together to resembletrue nature or authentic landscape, most of them would feel bored, alienated or downright scared.What they realIy need is a feeling of nature and landscape, not built as a replica but more as aremake. Natural areas and landscape elements are essential for the experience ofvisitors, notbecause they are authentic but because they are charged with symbolic connotations that the visitormisses in the rest of the urban fabric. Even in cases where these areas and elements are by alImeans authentic, the drastic change in context stiU makes them highly displaced. StiU, the interestin natural and authentic things may be based on misgivings, it is a genuine emotion that cannot beignored.Using recent examples, I wilI go into the nature of these three sources of inspiration and try to findan answer to the question why they are so important in our time.How park patt~!:..~_sperformAt the turn ofthe century, the symbolic landscape of our city parks wilI be based upon three trendsthat supplement and reinforce each other: the natural, the authentic and the eclectic. We also sawnew trends in the use of city parks. It is interesting to explore how well the different patterns inurban green spaces perform when it comes to providing space for recreational use and experiences.First, we wilIlook at the potential for nature and the experience of nature. It is easy to see thatpark patterns that are generalIy larger in area wiU have the largest potential for the deve10pment of



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A.Y.l.WJI\ilPUS. A.onrerenzna ... : J:HUNGING A PlECE OF LANDSCAPE INTO THE cnypage 10 of 13belt and the wedge wiU also be able to provide space for recreational circuits.As for the ribbon and the patchwork, they may be part of an urban network and, for that reason,part of an urban curcuit, but they will normalIy fail to provide circuits on their own. An exeptioncan be made for large, isolated city parks: in some cases they may have a reasonable potential forcircuit recreation.Another aspect that should be discussed is the density of park use for the different pattems.Looking at the visitors-area-ratio, it is inevitably that the isolated (but well accessible) city parks ofthe patchwork will give the best results, followed by thenetwork and the ribbon. The wedge andthe (outer) belt will faU far behind in density because of their character and sheer size.FinalIy, the potential for variety in recreational experience is a topic that needs to be discussed. Aninteresting (and for some unexpected) observation is that the smaller a park is in size, the larger thevariety will tend to be. This is caused by the fact that in a smalI-size park, no one will bother tointroduce large-scale facilities; in fact, the area will be used extremely effective to atract as manyvisitors as possible. Therefore, the parks in apatchwork and the elements in anetwork will havethe best score on 'variety in recreational experience'. Thebelt and the wedge will score poorlywhile the ribbon will have an intermediate position.We should also consider a number of aspects that are not directly related to the experience ofnature and authenticity, or to park use. Still, they are important for the way in which urban parkswill function in practice. Easy access from surrounding as well as other parts ofthe city, forinstance, is one of them. Here, park pattems that penetrate as much as possible into the city havean edge over the others: this means a high score for the network and a reasonable score for thewedge and the ribbon. The belt is the obvious loser, as it is relatively remote from most parts ofthe city (this goes especially for the outer belt; the inner belt shows a slightly better score). Thepatchwork has the intermediate position: when seen apart, each isolated park functions only for itsclose surroundings, but alI parks together make a reasonable accessible system.A modem topic is the feeling of (un)safety that parks can convey. The smaller the park area is, andthe better it is integrated in its environment, the larger its chances are to become a 'safe' park. Incontrast, large, monotonous and relatively remote parks make a bad performance. This means thatthe (outer) belt and, to a lesser extent, the wedge must be considered potentially unsafe, as theparks in the patchwork and the elements in the network tend to be relatively safe.The performance ofthe five park structures regarding these different aspects is displayed in thefolIowing matrix.

I Patchwork II Ribbon " Netwotk II (Guter) belt II Wedge IExperience of natural environment 0601 verygood IBLinking natural element. ~Experience of autbentic environment 601 good 16Linking autbentic elements ~uitability for static recreation Suitability for active recreation 0601 verygood IB



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Municipia: Konferenzna ... : BRINGING A PlECE OF LANDSCAPE INTO THE Clry Page 11 of 13Suitability for circuit recreation OBIood16

se

very high~~I 10erience

very highighI very high II 108ood81 16ood6DO

We should keep in mind that the scores in the matrix are based on rather subjective definitions sothat the overall impression should be considered tentative. StiU, there are some interesting trendsto be found.

o The parks ofthe patchwork are highly effective in their visitor-area-ratio, they have agreat potential for variety, and they are relatively safe. On the other hand, they scorepoor when it comes to providing links with the surrounding nature and landscape. Inshort: here we find high-quality parks in a high degree of isolation. IT any 'natural andauthentic atmosphere' can be created here, it wiU be an artificial background for avariety of leisure activities.

o The ribbon shows an overall reasonable score in the matrix. However, the potential inbringing the surrounding landscape (or nature) into the city is clearly larger than thepotential for variety in recreational use and experience. As a conclusion, we could saythat the presence of an existing (water) ribbon in a city should by alI means be used tecreate an environment that has certain qualities, but there is no need to create a newribbon from scratch.

o A reasonably balanced score is accomplished by thenetwork. The elements of thenetwork are as close to the residential areas as any park element can be, they arerelatively safe and show a great potential for variety. The network is the idealenvironment for circui~linked forms of recreation, which are extremely popular inthese times. Aiso does the network provide interesting links with surrounding natureand landscape values. AlI together, the network can be a very efficient way to create apark system in a city.

o The (outer) belt performs poorly in the matrix, especialIy on the subjects od variety,safety and accessability. Aiso on the subjects of'bringing nature and landscape into thecity', scores are poor. The belt performs best when large areas are needed for (active)recreational use or for the introduction of natural and historical elements. When wealso consider the fact (not given in the matrix) that the outer belt has the obviousdisadvantage ofbeing an obstacle to urban development, we should admit there is noreason to promote the concept of the greenbelt in modem planning.

o Although the overall scores seem to resemble those ofthe belt, thewedge performsbetter in some aspects. EspecialIy the great potential for connecting city and countryside (see the scores on 'bringing nature and landscape into the city') is evident.Another advantage ofthe wedge is the positive score on 'accessibility': the wedge iscloser to many residential areas than its direct competitor, the belt. And, other thanthe belt, the wedge is hardly an obstruction to new urban development. As a concept,the green wedge is still a strong one.

Park patterns for a 2lst century city



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FinalIy, I will make some notes on the park pattems we may expect in the cities ofthe early 21stcentury. After the trends we found before, it will be no surprise thatvariety in recreationalexperience is the key term for our future park systems. It will not be easy to fulfill the demands ofthe park visitor. On the one hand, he wants an environment that shows its natural and authenticorigins. On the other hand, he wants to see these elements integrated in an artificial parkenvironment that caters for an extreme variety of recreational activities, many ofwhich are recentor still have to be developed.We should carefulIy consider to introduce elements of natural and heritage value in our parksystems. These elements may be isolated, to serve as'reminders' ofthe world outside the city; or,even better, they should be linked with actual values outside the city as to show the continuitybetween city and country-side.

Figure 5: parkpatternsforthe city ofthe21 st centu ry

8 ring landsca pe intothe c~y for the'authentic expertence'

1,Create network ofnarrow corridorsforcircuit recreation

Use natural elerrentsas linKs between cityand country-side

The city ofthe 21st century will still have some'c1assic' parks, like relatively isolated and smal~size neighborhood parks. They will function primarily for their immediate surroundings, but thereuse will be intensive and their variety very high. On the other hand, our cities will also need alimited number of large-size parks, especialIy for those activities that require large (open) greenspaces. In an ideal situation, these parks should be wedge-shaped to connect city and country-side.To make alI these park elements into a system, we should aim at creating a network of greencorridors for recreation. They will be small in size but divers in their use, serving as an idealenvironment for circuit-types of recreation and as mere connections between the larger but isolated

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Municipia: Konferenzna ... : BRINGING A PlECE OF LANDSCAPE INTO THE CIT YPage 13 of 13,-park elements in and around the city. In fact, they will be the green network that holds the citytogether.Figure 5 shows a schetch ofthe principles ofsystem ofpark elements, open towards thesurrounding country-side and brought together by a green network. The ultimate goal is to bring apiece of landscape into the city, sometimes as a mere symbol of another wor1d, sometimes as atangible reality for the park visitor.

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