Sustainable design, management and appropriation of urban public parks

Project in the National Research Program 54: Sustainable development of the built environment. The project is in its final stage. The scientific report has already been completed. In 2009, the results will also be published in a report available to the general public.

NEW! Final project report available for download (German only).

Project description

Urban public parks are key land uses in today's cities and huge sums of money are spent by the state to build and maintain them for the benefit of its citizens. Parks contain a great potential to raise the quality of life of urban citizens and foster social sustainability as they offer opportunities for equal participation. However, even though principally accessible to everybody, public parks are simultaneously sites of significant, mostly informal, exclusion and domination processes. Public parks are one of many sites of growing conflicts in our increasingly heterogeneous global cities. Managing diversity such that cultural and social variety becomes a driving force and not an impediment to social sustainability is at present one of the greatest challenges for public authorities.

Focusing on specific urban parks in the city of Zurich this project aims at identifying elements of design and planning as well as strategies of management and operation that foster a socially sustainable appropriation of public areas. Social sustainability in a park ensures equal access and participation, irrespective of gender, age, nationality, ethnicity and socio-economic status of a person. Socially sustainable appropriation of space in parks respects cultural and social diversity and does not tolerate domination and exclusion of specific groups.

The project comprises two closely collaborating research teams SOSPA (SOcial Aspects of SPAce appropriation in urban public parks) and VISPA (VIsualization of SPAce appropriation in urban public parks).

Team

Dr. Elisabeth Bühler	Heidi Kaspar
Prof. Dr. Sabine Timpf	Dr. Frank Ostermann

maintained by F. Ostermann; last update April 08, 2009