Tracing the development of contemporary park-city relationships

Abstract

Since the late post--?war period the relationship between park and city has significantly altered. Parks established between 1980 and 2000 in Paris --? in particular Parc de La Villette and Parc André Citroën – exemplify developments in park design and the park--?city relationship in this period and form precedents for many subsequent parks worldwide. Park designation in this period was related to the reform of public (open) space policy by urban administrations in many European cities in the early 1980s. Parc de La Villette and Parc André Citroën were also seen as tools for spatial, economic and social urban regeneration, and as vehicles for political expression. Developments in the park--?city relationship in Parc de La Villette and Parc André Citroën were influenced by their location on former industrial sites; obsolete urban territories were designated as sites for green space, nature and landscape. They necessitated the translation of urban artifacts into landscape space. In these parks there was little ‘former’ landscape to work with and the importance of the natural and cultural landscape as a basis for place--?making diminished. At the same time layers of urban history were integrated into designs. La Villette demonstrates a new and extensive interrelationship between park and city on a spatial--? morphological level with the integration of canals, squares and threshold buildings in the design. Moreover, a folie grid was superimposed over the park as an urban layer. The result is a fundamental shift in the distinction between city and park. Site conditions and compositional schemes in both parks resulted in the blurring of the park ‘edge’ and its extension into the city. City form thus became a landscape architectonic problem again – as city form in Paris was historically a landscape architectonic activity.