Beyond Pragmatism: Challenging the Generic Design of Public Parks in the Contemporary City

This paper explores the role of public parks in contemporary cities. It argues that the economy of cities, consumption culture and regeneration processes have contributed to the development of particular design principles of public spaces that place the user at the bottom of the food chain. The contribution of branding, marketing and regeneration processes to landscape design culture is not to offer a refuge from the modern city but rather it enhances the visual buzz. Exploring this approach to contemporary open spaces in the city, and defining some of its underlying design principles, the paper calls for a counter approach – the round public place – that might be able to offer more complex, dynamic public spaces in cities. Challenging the contemporary approach to landscape design is viewed as essential. In an age of control and consumption, public parks are still places of freedom and choice, and are spaces that we should be fighting for their design and being.