NEXT.cc’s Parks Journeys is under construction. Please share photos and locations of your favorite parks and any important links!Parks are green spaces in the communities in which we live. Within walking distance from our homes, they provide spaces for relaxation, appreciation, and socialization. They are as important as the homes in which we live. Everyone needs parks of different types to spend time outdoors, meet with friends, people watch, attend events like music in the park, play a game of softball or soccer, or just even take a walk in the trees. In many ways, Earth’s nature was an endless park until cities began to settle. While some cities based their development on green squares (like Savannah), Greenways (like Barcelona) or London with its large park areas, New York with its Central Park and squares. Today cities realize that people need parks. Parks can be realized in vacant lots, along the riversides or lake edges, under freeways, and even replace single-story parking lots with indigenous plantings! Parks provide habitats for insects, animals, and indigenous plants. The EU Green Cities legislation asks for 40% of our cities to be porous land filled with parks, indigenous grasslands, wetlands, and forests. Moving toward blue/green cities will change some of our “concrete jungles” into more hospitable environments for all. Parks programs provide for restoring natural habits, renaturing urban areas, and planting and conserving wetlands, grasslands, and forests.
Activity 1 – Parks as Public Spaces of Repose
“…the enjoyment of scenery employs the mind without fatigue and yet exercises it, tranquilizes it, and yet enlivens it; and thus through the influence of the mind over the body, gives the effect of refreshing rest and reinvigoration to the whole system”. Frederick Law Olmsted, 1865
Parks are places to walk, sit, picnic, garden, recreate, end enjoy being outside. Parks are places of repose outdoors, with public, semi public, and even private places to sit alone, together, and even in groups.
Review
Explore
- 10 Best Parks in Atlanta
- 10 Best Parks in Tokyo
- 2030 Pallette Global Parks
- All National Parks
- Arthur Casas Praca Da Se, Brazil
- ASLA Revitalizing Communities with Parks
- Atlanta's Linear Olmsted Parks
- A Wealth of Nature
- Buffalo Parks Olmsted Lefacy
- Capital Grounds, Washington DC, by Olmsted
- Chicago Park District
- Chicago Parks
- Elmerald Necklace Conservatory
- Find A Park
- Find a Park Milwaukee
- Find a State Park
- Five Seasons: The GArdens of Piet Oudolf Trailer
- Fort Wayne Parks
- Greater London National park map
- London Green Roofs, Green Spaces, Forests
- New York City Parks
- NYC Central Park
- Oldest Parks in the World
- Olmstead Parks Louisville
- Olmsted 200
- Olmsted's Lake Park Milwaukee
- Open Outdoors for Kids
- Paris Green Spaces Map
- Paris Park Bercy
- Paris Park Citroen, Paris, Patrick Berger, Gils Clement Landscape Architects
- Paris Park La Villette Bernard Tschumi Architect
- Park Guell and Other Barcelona Parks
- Roberto Burle Marx Brazilian Landscape Architect of Parks
- San Francisco Parks Public Accessibility Score
- The TRUST for PUBLIC LANDS: Turning School yards into Community Parks
- Thomas Little Plant Whisperer UrbanGreenGardens
- Urban Parks In America
- Walter Hood
Relate
- Electric Light
- Ergonomics
- Experience Design
- Forests
- Grass
- Green Cities
- Green Roofs
- Green Streets
- Growing food
- Historic Preservation
- Lakes
- Nature Play
- Pavilions
- Playscapes
- Pocket Parks
- Public Space
- Rain Gardens
- Rivers
- School Gardens
- Site Analysis
- Site Programming
- Smart Cities
- Smart Grid
- Soil
- Soundscapes
- Streets
- Sunlight
- Tree Identification
- Urban Design
- Water
- Watershed
- Well Being