Design possibilities of leftover spaces as a pocket park in relation to planting enclosure

Abstract

Despite the focus on (large parks) green public spaces in urban areas, mini-parks have been disregarded, especially the way they should be designed based on people’s aesthetic preferences, in order to fulfill societal potential. Having used 25 computer-generated pocket park (PP) scenes with various levels of enclosure based on planting, this study seeks to investigate public opinion on three factors: coherence, legibility, and the refuge. Since vacant lands inherently receive limited budgets, design practices must develop innovative ways to implement the projects. Residents from Tehran, Iran (n = 318) participated in a visual online questionnaire depicting five main types for the permeability of enclosure in small leftover spaces, which had the possibility to change into PP. They were asked to assess the coherence, legibility, refuge, and select the types of activities they could imagine in each park. This study adopted a descriptive-analytical method. The results were evaluated using the chi-square test and are as follows: (1) In terms of all five types, participants rated the lowest for refuge in visually open and physically open scenes. (2) If the visual and physical scenes are enclosed, participants perceive the legibility to be higher compared to open scenes. (3) In visually open scenes, there are no significant differences in the participants’ sense of coherence even though the physical enclosure is changed. (4) Due to the investigation of spatial configurations of PP, when compared to other variables (coherence and legibility), it is demonstrated that enclosure will be more significant in terms of refuge.