Public park and community garden: urban green as a bond cohere environment with people

Public park a environment with group memory ���

Pubic park and community garden, as one of the most common public place and urban green infrastructure, provides both culture services and ecological service in cities. However, due to the deterioration of the urban environment, people tend to focus on ecological functions of building parks and public gardens, while often overlook the particular and unique sociological factors of the field. But if urban space wants to stay resilient and long-lasting, human factors and historical factors can’t be separated from geographical and environmental factors. Tadao Ando, a prominent architect ever said, “The most important value of urban culture depends on the fact that as the group memory shared by people, it will go beyond the times based on particular shared memory of a group of local people.” So when designing urban green parks and gardens, it not only need to take into account importance of the natural environment, but also consider about the needs of local residents and the echo with history and culture. Only in this way urban public space can be sustainable and resilient.

As a type of urban green, public park and community garden offer a diversified ecosystem services include provisioning services and regulating and supporting services. Parks and public gardens under a size of 2.5 hectares are included in this category. They are one of the most effective measures to reduce urban effects and increase biodiversity. Planting big trees and bushes in parks and gardens can provide shade, reduce surface heat absorption, increase oxygen supply, and contribute to soil water storage. In the flood and rainy season, they are very helpful for alleviating the flow speed of surface water. In addition, they can offer a living space for a wide variety of organisms, especially for insects and small mammals. Green vegetation can provide them with a good rest, concealment and breeding space.

But after talking about significance of environmentalism and regionalism of public green space, how can we design a good one for Leiden that meets both ecological needs and local characteristics? As a Dutch city with a long history, Leiden has a wealth of human and natural resources. It is a city that must be passed from the Hague (political center of the Netherlands) to Amsterdam (International center of the Netherlands), and it have the oldest university of the Netherlands (Leiden University). In addition, Leiden used to have a prosperous textile industry, and contains developed canal distribution and urban planning, which made business once prosperous. Since before, countless scholars and businessmen have visited here and have been made it as a culture and history centre.

Till today, thousands of students, tourists and different kind of people visit Leiden everyday. So if there is going to build public parks and community gardens in and around the Lorentz building, in which it will become the landmark building right next Leiden Central station, what kind of green space design can be the most suitable to this fascinating city. In order to solve this problem, I think the first step is to understand people’s expectations for the green infrastructure. Do they agree to build such a public space? How’s the green space of Leiden should be look like? And what they want to do in this land? After understanding this, and combine with the history background and geographical conditions, the design of public park and community garden of the Lorentz building must be unique and excellent. After all, the vitality and diverse atmosphere of a city are always cultivated by the residents themselves.