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PARK DESIGNS Parks are planted places in which vegetation, earth, water, and constructions are cultivated in such a way through composition that they acquire a meaning beyond the significance of the single plant. Without imagination a park is a mere dry décor for people who come and go; a meaningless façade. Parks are the most artistic products of landscape architecture. It is precisely for this reason that by means of analysis and examination this study seeks to identify the artistic aspects of park design.COMPARATIVE DESIGN ANALYSIS Landscape architecture is a profession comprising craftsmanship, theory and artistic sense. Research enables these three mainstays of the profession to be consolidated and their mutual position and interaction clarified. The main objective of the present study is to contribute to the formation of theories of landscape design. This is done by means of a comparative design analysis, through the intellectual decomposition and examination of park designs. Park design is a subject of study eminently suited to this objective, for here the essence of landscape design is present in a concentrated form.This study also considers contemporary park design and the sources influencing designers. It aims to discover and reveal the qualities and the potential of recent developments in park design.The design analysis provides an overview of the means designers have at their disposal. The tradition of the profession offers the context for the analysis. We can learn from the history of garden design, but only with a criticism that is superior to it. A rational approach to tradition is necessary because meaningful creative activities are based on rules.THE COMPETITION FOR LA VILLETTE The Concours International: Parc de la Villette, Paris, 1982-3 attracted considerable international attention and provided material suitable for our research. A competition is ideally suited to a design analysis. Qualitatively varied strategies in creating park (landscape) designs can be compared since they are applied to the same site and use the same programme.Above all, the competition was chosen for this study because the complex brief constituted a particular challenge for participants. Designers were thus compelled to sharpen their ideas and to broaden their understanding and method of approach. They had to, as it were, enter into a battle with conventional concepts concerning parks, possibly even with their own familiar principles. A comparative analysis of design plans illustrates which strategies and themes have played a decisive role in the design and how these have been incorporated into the various designs.ANALYSIS The analysis covers all of the stages of the design and touches on as many as possible of the considerations that have influenced the design. The analysis reasons proceeding from the product, via an interpretation of the process, towards the idea. Much of the analysis is done and recorded in drawings. Each stage is accompanied by a series of analytical drawings: abstractions that reveal the concept behind the design. By making use of these drawings, design specific characteristics can be considered more easily and the results are easier to conceptualize and transmit.The analysis proceeds in four stages, from graphic abstraction via spatial reality towards compositional concepts and themes; from reaction to location and programme to traditions of form. In addition, the viewpoint in relation to the plan shifts, both literally and figuratively: from, for example, composition on the flat surface to the spatial scene, or from the practical functioning of the site to the character and meaning of the forms and materials used. The stages in the analysis are preceded by a description of the programme and the site: the conditions of the assignment (Chapter 2).The first stage explores the graphic composition of the plan and results in a representation of points, lines and planes (Chapter 3). This analysis reveals a diversity of patterns. The designers responded to the geometry of the site and the surroundings, either following it or diverging from it.In the second stage the following question is posed: 'What is the significance of the graphic composition for the spatial functioning of the park?' It considers thus how the many and various functional programmatic items are given a spatial coherence. These practical parameters of the park layout form 'the components of coherence'. These concepts are here termed access, organization, anchoring, openness, articulation, and character (Chapter 4). A comparison of the analytical drawings from the first stage with those from the second shows the use of a combination of alignments; the purpose of this is to seek a coherence in which there is space for tension and dynamism in the composition. Important qualities that result from coherence are orientation and scale.The third stage considers which design principles direct the designers' approach to the conditions, potentials and meanings, both of the site and of the requirements of the programme. The following design strategies have been distinguished: firstly, strategies relating to use and time (historical continuity, functional relations, flexibility); and, secondly, strategies with regard to design and layout (wholeness, fragmentation). In the designs wholeness was rarely employed as a strategy. It is uncertain whether this is a consequence of the diversity demanded in the programme, or because the designers have no clear idea of the form of the park in the future. In general designers employed a combination of design strategies; this can lead to multifacetedness, but also to complex composites that are difficult for the visitor to understand.The fourth stage explores which concepts of form have been used in the design; how is styling used to concretize the spatial structure? It is an exploration of design tools and themes. The stylistic elements are based on a division into three archetypes of landscape architecture: classicism, landscape style and modernism (Chapter 6). By means of this characterization an attempt is made to comprehend the logic of the spatial forms and patterns. The adaptation can be inventive and spiritual (innovative), virtuosic and ingenious (mannerist), perfunctory and unimaginative (cliché'd), indolent and sensationalist (populist), austere and clinical (formal), or artless and unpretentious (informal or pragmatic). Pure styles are both out of fashion and were in any case emphatically rejected by the client. Mixed styles have been much tried in the solutions submitted, partly because of the requested pluralism and polysemy.The method of analysis presented here can be deployed in many cases, particularly in complex situations. Its step-by-step structure is directly and universally utilizable. The concepts will need adapting or expanding in some cases though; they have, after all, been chosen and defined on the basis of what was encountered in the plans considered in this study, namely principally those for La Villette (Chapter 7)CONCLUSIONS Part 3 of this study tries to draw together the results of our analysis of La Villette in particular, and of park design in general. It presents a series of conclusions relating to the plans for La Villette, and especially to what is reflected in the designs, the 'literary' in the designs: signs, images and references. This is something one tends to lose sight of during the analysis itself (Chapter 8). By tradition, symbolism is an important phenomenon in garden and park. The appreciation and utilization of the possibilities offered by symbolism is not always a matter of course however. The superficiality of meaning in many plans arises as a result of designing without considering meaning. The symbolization can result from the character of landscape architecture: the relationship to nature. And the symbols can be derived from the programme of requirements: the representation of cultural pluralism and innovation in park design (La Villette is to be the park of the twenty-first century).The study concludes with a series of reflections on composing in landscape architecture: the form and content of the urban park in general, and the idiosyncratic in the Parc de la Villette in particular (Chapter 9). Here a number of aspects relating to the architectural principles of park design are dealt with (the effects and meanings of the interplay between components) under the headings spatial illusion, order, unity, line patterns, literary figures, musical compositional figures.In view of La Villette's exemplary function, both with regard to the programme and the design, we conclude by sketching a vision of what is just as important for the city's future: the 'ordinary' park. The openness of a grassy or scintillating space is the most important quality for the ordinary park: long sight lines to dream away in, the tranquillity of simple spaces in which to entertain one's thoughts, and the enchanting rhythms of the regularity and repetition of interconnected trees and hedges. Deserted and empty on a rainy morning and animated and shining on a sunny day. It is a field of sensual experiences that are complementary to work and consumption; that is, the voluntary, primary and sensual, versus the controlled, organized and useful. This requires a relaxed, reserved and natural design, rather than one that is forced, insistent and affected. The design of the ordinary park gives rise to careful observation, an observation in which the eye grows restful and contemplative. Slow and serious perhaps for the rhythm of this age, but because of the quality of intimacy and, at the same rime, unemotionality, a unique moment of beauty.

Recreatieonderzoek

PARK DESIGNS Parks are planted places in which vegetation, earth, water, and constructions are cultivated in such a way through composition that they acquire a meaning beyond the significance of the single plant. Without imagination a park is a mere dry décor for people who come and go; a meaningless façade. Parks are the most artistic products of landscape architecture. It is precisely for this reason that by means of analysis and examination this study seeks to identify the artistic aspects of park design.COMPARATIVE DESIGN ANALYSIS Landscape architecture is a profession comprising craftsmanship, theory and artistic sense. Research enables these three mainstays of the profession to be consolidated and their mutual position and interaction clarified. The main objective of the present study is to contribute to the formation of theories of landscape design. This is done by means of a comparative design analysis, through the intellectual decomposition and examination of park designs. Park design is a subject of study eminently suited to this objective, for here the essence of landscape design is present in a concentrated form.This study also considers contemporary park design and the sources influencing designers. It aims to discover and reveal the qualities and the potential of recent developments in park design.The design analysis provides an overview of the means designers have at their disposal. The tradition of the profession offers the context for the analysis. We can learn from the history of garden design, but only with a criticism that is superior to it. A rational approach to tradition is necessary because meaningful creative activities are based on rules.THE COMPETITION FOR LA VILLETTE The Concours International: Parc de la Villette, Paris, 1982-3 attracted considerable international attention and provided material suitable for our research. A competition is ideally suited to a design analysis. Qualitatively varied strategies in creating park (landscape) designs can be compared since they are applied to the same site and use the same programme.Above all, the competition was chosen for this study because the complex brief constituted a particular challenge for participants. Designers were thus compelled to sharpen their ideas and to broaden their understanding and method of approach. They had to, as it were, enter into a battle with conventional concepts concerning parks, possibly even with their own familiar principles. A comparative analysis of design plans illustrates which strategies and themes have played a decisive role in the design and how these have been incorporated into the various designs.ANALYSIS The analysis covers all of the stages of the design and touches on as many as possible of the considerations that have influenced the design. The analysis reasons proceeding from the product, via an interpretation of the process, towards the idea. Much of the analysis is done and recorded in drawings. Each stage is accompanied by a series of analytical drawings: abstractions that reveal the concept behind the design. By making use of these drawings, design specific characteristics can be considered more easily and the results are easier to conceptualize and transmit.The analysis proceeds in four stages, from graphic abstraction via spatial reality towards compositional concepts and themes; from reaction to location and programme to traditions of form. In addition, the viewpoint in relation to the plan shifts, both literally and figuratively: from, for example, composition on the flat surface to the spatial scene, or from the practical functioning of the site to the character and meaning of the forms and materials used. The stages in the analysis are preceded by a description of the programme and the site: the conditions of the assignment (Chapter 2).The first stage explores the graphic composition of the plan and results in a representation of points, lines and planes (Chapter 3). This analysis reveals a diversity of patterns. The designers responded to the geometry of the site and the surroundings, either following it or diverging from it.In the second stage the following question is posed: 'What is the significance of the graphic composition for the spatial functioning of the park?' It considers thus how the many and various functional programmatic items are given a spatial coherence. These practical parameters of the park layout form 'the components of coherence'. These concepts are here termed access, organization, anchoring, openness, articulation, and character (Chapter 4). A comparison of the analytical drawings from the first stage with those from the second shows the use of a combination of alignments; the purpose of this is to seek a coherence in which there is space for tension and dynamism in the composition. Important qualities that result from coherence are orientation and scale.The third stage considers which design principles direct the designers' approach to the conditions, potentials and meanings, both of the site and of the requirements of the programme. The following design strategies have been distinguished: firstly, strategies relating to use and time (historical continuity, functional relations, flexibility); and, secondly, strategies with regard to design and layout (wholeness, fragmentation). In the designs wholeness was rarely employed as a strategy. It is uncertain whether this is a consequence of the diversity demanded in the programme, or because the designers have no clear idea of the form of the park in the future. In general designers employed a combination of design strategies; this can lead to multifacetedness, but also to complex composites that are difficult for the visitor to understand.The fourth stage explores which concepts of form have been used in the design; how is styling used to concretize the spatial structure? It is an exploration of design tools and themes. The stylistic elements are based on a division into three archetypes of landscape architecture: classicism, landscape style and modernism (Chapter 6). By means of this characterization an attempt is made to comprehend the logic of the spatial forms and patterns. The adaptation can be inventive and spiritual (innovative), virtuosic and ingenious (mannerist), perfunctory and unimaginative (cliché'd), indolent and sensationalist (populist), austere and clinical (formal), or artless and unpretentious (informal or pragmatic). Pure styles are both out of fashion and were in any case emphatically rejected by the client. Mixed styles have been much tried in the solutions submitted, partly because of the requested pluralism and polysemy.The method of analysis presented here can be deployed in many cases, particularly in complex situations. Its step-by-step structure is directly and universally utilizable. The concepts will need adapting or expanding in some cases though; they have, after all, been chosen and defined on the basis of what was encountered in the plans considered in this study, namely principally those for La Villette (Chapter 7)CONCLUSIONS Part 3 of this study tries to draw together the results of our analysis of La Villette in particular, and of park design in general. It presents a series of conclusions relating to the plans for La Villette, and especially to what is reflected in the designs, the 'literary' in the designs: signs, images and references. This is something one tends to lose sight of during the analysis itself (Chapter 8). By tradition, symbolism is an important phenomenon in garden and park. The appreciation and utilization of the possibilities offered by symbolism is not always a matter of course however. The superficiality of meaning in many plans arises as a result of designing without considering meaning. The symbolization can result from the character of landscape architecture: the relationship to nature. And the symbols can be derived from the programme of requirements: the representation of cultural pluralism and innovation in park design (La Villette is to be the park of the twenty-first century).The study concludes with a series of reflections on composing in landscape architecture: the form and content of the urban park in general, and the idiosyncratic in the Parc de la Villette in particular (Chapter 9). Here a number of aspects relating to the architectural principles of park design are dealt with (the effects and meanings of the interplay between components) under the headings spatial illusion, order, unity, line patterns, literary figures, musical compositional figures.In view of La Villette's exemplary function, both with regard to the programme and the design, we conclude by sketching a vision of what is just as important for the city's future: the 'ordinary' park. The openness of a grassy or scintillating space is the most important quality for the ordinary park: long sight lines to dream away in, the tranquillity of simple spaces in which to entertain one's thoughts, and the enchanting rhythms of the regularity and repetition of interconnected trees and hedges. Deserted and empty on a rainy morning and animated and shining on a sunny day. It is a field of sensual experiences that are complementary to work and consumption; that is, the voluntary, primary and sensual, versus the controlled, organized and useful. This requires a relaxed, reserved and natural design, rather than one that is forced, insistent and affected. The design of the ordinary park gives rise to careful observation, an observation in which the eye grows restful and contemplative. Slow and serious perhaps for the rhythm of this age, but because of the quality of intimacy and, at the same rime, unemotionality, a unique moment of beauty.

Recreatieonderzoek

Normen, tijdnormen aanleg en onderhoud openbaar groen

The pressure on the development of adequate open space systems in the Arab-Muslim countries in the Middle East is growing due to: massive migration to the cities, changes in the patterns of life and social networks, and an increasing growth in population. This process results in the development of new residential areas and the upgrading and redevelopment of existing residential quarters. Since modern western and traditional design approaches are often unsuited to the contemporary needs of the Arab-Muslims, these developments require a 'new' approach for the design of open space in these countries.To contribute to an appropriate contemporary open space design approach a series of design considerations is developed which might form a open space design language for settlements in the Arab-Muslim region in the Middle East.In order to derive this language the factors which affect the design of open space and the way modern open space has evolved from the traditional one, are described and analyzed. Attention is given to the application of traditional and modern design concepts, and the linkage of open space forms, layouts and functions of open spaces to life patterns, beliefs and desires in the context of their setting and the culture of the Arab-Muslim region in the Middle East.The author hopes that the results of this study may contribute to the 'dialogue' between users and open space, by which the establishment of meaningful and coherent open space systems is the main goal. A process which is, however, only achievable as both users, designers and decision-makers understand the language of open space.

The pressure on the development of adequate open space systems in the Arab-Muslim countries in the Middle East is growing due to: massive migration to the cities, changes in the patterns of life and social networks, and an increasing growth in population. This process results in the development of new residential areas and the upgrading and redevelopment of existing residential quarters. Since modern western and traditional design approaches are often unsuited to the contemporary needs of the Arab-Muslims, these developments require a 'new' approach for the design of open space in these countries.To contribute to an appropriate contemporary open space design approach a series of design considerations is developed which might form a open space design language for settlements in the Arab-Muslim region in the Middle East.In order to derive this language the factors which affect the design of open space and the way modern open space has evolved from the traditional one, are described and analyzed. Attention is given to the application of traditional and modern design concepts, and the linkage of open space forms, layouts and functions of open spaces to life patterns, beliefs and desires in the context of their setting and the culture of the Arab-Muslim region in the Middle East.The author hopes that the results of this study may contribute to the 'dialogue' between users and open space, by which the establishment of meaningful and coherent open space systems is the main goal. A process which is, however, only achievable as both users, designers and decision-makers understand the language of open space.

De Werkgroep Recreatie van de Landbouwuniversiteit heeft in 1987 en 1988 onderzoek verricht naar effecten van privatiseringen in de watersport en sportvisserij

Onderzoek in landschappelijke beplantingen heeft aangetoond dat de wijze waarop de beplantingen worden aangelegd van grote invloed is op de latere onderhoudskosten. De gegevens van de Rottemeren zijn in de eerste plaats gebruikt om aan te geven op welk niveau de aanleg- en onderhoudskosten liggen voor dit type beplantingen. Daarnaast is getracht na te gaan wat de invloeden zijn van de soortensamenstelling en de ruimtelijke structuur van de beplantingen op het niveau van de onderhoudskosten. De aldus verkregen inzichten kunnen bijdragen tot verlaging van de exploitatiekosten van toekomstig aan te leggen recreatieve beplantingen. De uitkomsten van dit onderzoek zijn uitgebreider beschreven in Rapport nr. 231 van "De Dorschkamp"

Onderzoek is gedaan in drie recreatiegebieden met het doel inzicht te verkrijgen in de wijze waarop beplantingen in dergelijke gebieden worden beheerd; welke kosten het beheer bij de verschillende beplantingstypen met zich meebrengt, en aanbevelingen te doen voor verlaging van de beheerskosten

Korte weergave van drie projecten (Wageningen, Arnhem, Zwolle) met als centraal thema: de landschaps-architectonische relatie van de stad met de rivier waaraan zij ligt

Bespreking van aspekten in verband met de uitwerking van een groenstructuur voor de randstad, met aandacht voor de redenen voor uitvoering van dit plan; de instelling van stuurgroepen; het instrumentarium; historische ontwikkeling van het landschap en de uitvoering van de groenstructuur

Ontwikkelingen binnen landbouw, natuurbeleid, planning van recreatiegebieden en overheidsplanning zullen van invloed zijn op landinrichtingsprojecten. De vraag is hoe omgegaan kan worden met onzekerheden over het toekomstig grondgebruik en beleidswijzigingen bij de overheid bij projecten die gemiddeld 23 jaar in beslag nemen. Aangegeven wordt hoe de landinrichting op de toekomst in zou kunnen spelen

In veel gemeenten wordt bij de groendiensten uit bezuinigingsoverwegingen tot automatisering overgegaan, waarbij dit proces vooral plaats vindt op de beheersafdelingen en vrijwel niet op de ontwerpafdelingen. Een beschouwing van de relatie en onderlinge samenhang tussen ontwerp en beheer geeft aan dat er, dankzij de automatiseringsmogelijkheden, ook voor ontwerpers veel mogelijkheden zijn om hun werk te systematiseren en af te stemmen op vraagpunten die bij beheerders leven