Abstract
Urban parks are mostly implemented as large green-infrastructural projects exclusive to recreational activities and economies. Currently, 54% of the global population is urban and is projected to increase to 68% by 2050 (UN 2012). This entails the need for a more sustainable approach towards food production, movement and overall living together in cities. Micro-scale communal spaces could potentially prompt such goal. They are often most effective when they utilize abandoned or ill-used urban voids; transforming them into pocket parks. This paper frames pocket parks as a potential first step towards both: sustainable urban regeneration, and equal access to public spaces in dense cities. It hypothesizes pocket parks as an answer to economic crisis, food production pressure, run-down communities and the lack of development land for communal spaces. It highlights their key implementation challenges. Also, the influence of communities' contextual needs on pocket parks' size, design, activities and funding is investigated by comparing selected international projects. Reflecting on the Mediterranean context, case studies from Cairo, Egypt and Tirana, Albania are analyzed and room for further implementation is discussed. Finally, the paper concludes with some recommendations to overcome their implementation challenges in commercial city centers and mixed-use residential areas.
Highlights
Public spaces, green spaces being one of them, have an important impact on cities’ quality of life, by creating pleasant microclimates away from traffic noise prompting social interaction
While the global urban population is expected to increase by 70% by 2030, the urban landcover will increase by over 200%; highlighting a serious imbalance between urbanization and population paces [1]
The paper analyzes the characteristics of pocket parks according to the dimensions of (1) size and location -as relevant to the urban context, (2) physical features -looking at various design elements, (3) potential activities -as triggers of place-making, and (4) possible funding and management schemes1
Summary
Green spaces being one of them, have an important impact on cities’ quality of life, by creating pleasant microclimates away from traffic noise prompting social interaction. Its targets include providing equal access to public spaces to all social classes, ages, genders, and people with disabilities. Such equal access can be guaranteed by providing such public spaces in proximity to residential areas and businesses. In an attempt to fill the gap between the larger city and the human dimension, small-scale projects are gaining more favor in order to give people their rightful place in the design equation. Such micro interventions are accompanied by a level of precision as they customize small-scale solutions on restricted surfaces. They are urban planning tools to re-activate the larger urban structure by healing exact spots [5]
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