Urban Parks (Urban Spaces , No 2)

Outstanding urban parks as varied as the people who use them worldwide are examined in this handsome volume. As documented in these pages, areas conceived as green spaces for citizens' enjoyment are linked to the city, but must also have some autonomy to be effective. This volume consists of a series of projects grouped within the term park, which is as broad as it is ambiguous. Due to the irregular and fast growth of today's cities, the urban park has acquired complex meanings, which this insightful book explores. Asensio Cerver, in his introduction to the first volume (Urban Spaces I) , says, "The idea of designing landscape is a form of creativity that has been practised for centuries, but only in the second half of this century has it received the same institutional, academic and public recognition as other humanistic activities like architecture and art. Only recently has landscaping begun to be rationally studied and ... its underlying principles and aims are little known to the general public, which often mistakes or belittles its intentions and results."