The Park. Urban Landmark, Identity Element, Time Symbol

Abstract

The urban park is the city area reserved for promenades, recreation, romantic dates. Unanimously considered as a part of nature, people often forget that this is a manmade planted area, where alleys and water surfaces are designed, the perspectives are controlled through massive softscaping, shrubs or flowering pockets, so that the park can express a variety of feelings. The urban park is enriched with gazebos, monuments, statues or embraces the already there or man-made ruins, spaces with a cultural destination, exhibitions. It can have a development based on a geometrical structure or free compositions. When associated to an emblematic building or integrating it, the park becomes representative too. As an organized public space, of a large weight in the economy of the urban territory, the park will reach a status of a genuine urban landmark. A park can divide districts in a city, similarly to a border but it as well connects the neigboring areas as a passing zone, thus playing an important role in building communities. Occasionally, the parks may be associated to large local or national events, at the time of their opening to the public or dedicated, hence adopting their symbolic meaning (see Ferdinand Park or Carol Park).