A Proposal on The Revitalization of Parks and Gardening

The thesis of this essay is on why we should revitalize and prioritize parks, parkways, park systems and the activity of gardening in the planning of new towns or cities, urban or suburban. This can only be achieved through the implementation and enforcement of proper urban planning policies with the underlying goal of progress in civility and societal refinement in mind. Below is a detailed argument in support of this premise.

When one embarks on a long term journey of personal fitness, periodically lifting weights at the gym or running in an outdoor environment with discipline, many other aspects of his life starts to get indirectly effected. He is more likely to eat clean, stand up straight with a good posture, better maintain his personal appearance and hygiene, be more sociable and confident, be more healthy in the eyes of his doctors, sleep better and be more sociable during the day. Thus, it may be said that routine exercise is a pivotal activity which positively influences other facets in our lives. And, so is gardening not just about finding the energy to water long forgotten plants in our balconies, but if practiced with discipline and in the right setting, also a pivotal activity which paves the way towards developing many other important human virtues.

Gardening, currently more of a noble endeavor of the select few, but once a common pursuit as noted in historical accounts and especially a widespread activity during the times of the enlightenment and up until before the industrial ages, is a keystone activity where one is also engaged in the development of a variety of other important human virtues, which, if widely implemented, may positively influence levels of civility and refinement in a society. Some of these virtues may be noted as follows; patience, practice in artistic composition and the acquirement of visual ‘taste’₁ (from the most knowledgeable teacher ever known to mankind, nature), an awareness of the natural inclinations in a specific environment and climate, anticipation, understanding the state of soil over time and natural remedies, self-reliance and resilience, scrutiny and the subsequently acquired affinity towards insects and animals which have symbiotic relationships with plant species, complexities in the extent and duration of different seasonal cycles, and empathy and delicateness towards fellow neighbors and citizenry. The activity of gardening and its positive effects on the faculties are a much-needed profound prescription to heal a modern man’s many chronic ailments and shortcomings inflicted upon him by the overarching placeless global culture of today.

Frederick Law Olmsted, known in history as the first landscape architect in the world, was able to foresee many of the potential social problems of the city as New York’s population was on the rise. His previous experience as a gentleman farmer in Staten Island and the correspondence work he had successfully undertaken in the South before the civil war permitted him to equip himself with a vast library of knowledge in different types of trees and plant species along with an understanding of the scenic and pastoral compositions found especially in these untouched parts of frontier states. From his travels in England as a student he had become acquainted with the famous English parks, which had a degree of partial emulations of the natural compositions, thus he knew that certain views in nature may be replicated through proper spatial arrangements of vegetation. His goal was to create the unique American version of these parks. He believed a 840 acre (3.382.000m2) park such as Central Park was a necessary relief from the strenuous effects of city life, especially for those who were unable to afford a retreat home outside the city. With his competition winning project, the greensward plan, he envisioned these parks to possess a democratic atmosphere, where the working and bourgeoisie classes could find opportunities to put aside all business to come together for chatting and mingling, as was in the case during the first winter after the park’s opening to public, where lakes froze, opportunities for ice skating had risen. Furthermore, his parks possessed clear distinctions of vehicular and pedestrian roads, where he arranged them in a way to prohibit unwanted traffic conditions. Another interesting fun fact is that Olmsted came up with the first parking spot in the world, designed for carriages to park. If one careful analyzes the below plan of prospect park, for instance, one could read the wholistic design of the park throughout. It’s roads, meadows, lakes, terraces, theaters and even formal landscape designs in certain parts all serve to the parks design unity. A world of its own, surrounded by the disciplined grid iron city fabric. Creating a much-needed contrast and balance between the two radically different physical environments, the city and nature.

How the wealthy and poor classes of society interact is a strong sign of how civilized a city is. Is there mutual respect, genuine care and cordiality between the two, or one of avoidance and sole exploitation? Parks, should not only be seen as a setting for recreation and tranquility, but, rather, as an urban device which has the potential of amending unhealthy polarizations among the different social classes. Therefore, its design shouldn’t be about the latest graphic fashions on landscape construction materials or expensive new types of high maintenance foliage, but rather, about how to create scenic atmospheres with native trees and plant species which in its carefully orchestrated perspectival composition works in favor of the regions natural strengths, thus brining the best sides out of people.₃

Fast-forward to today. Overly populated, congested and surrounded by our peers we are, but yet so lonely, almost as if, somehow, we woke up and found ourselves stranded on an island. Unable to construct healthy personal relationships with one another, unified only under the pretext of a project or material goal in mind. An impersonal modern lifestyle full of unprincipled, remorseless neighbors surrounding us. For future hope, when we look down to the newly emerging generations, it is becoming more and more apparent that they too have taken refuge in the digital social networks, sinking knee-deep into the artificial world, unable to develop a real skill and/or virtue in the service of oneself and mankind. How long is it going to take us to understand that this way of life is indeed a fallacy? Though there are more university degrees than ever, PhDs over PhDs, why is it so hard for anyone to pick up a real book of value in history and read about the times back then, their problems, how they overcame them, and most importantly the virtues obtained during their struggles. Civilization was supposed to improve through time, not regress like this. However, we must not despair. Instead, we must focus, look within, and start over by re-designing our habits. First and foremost, we must correct ourselves and then our surroundings will follow. Gardening, and the designing of parks, or in short, the handling of nature by man, is a giant catalytic step for amending the current social and cultural ills discussed above.

Since the beginning of the industrial age, the modern man has been confronted with the problem of having to reside in multifamily urban dwellings and the unnatural building scale attached to it. This problem is repeatedly emphasized in Walter Gropuis’s book₄, Scope of Total Architecture, with almost all of his chapters somehow touching on this subject, with theories and possible solutions. The issue in hand, in short, is the abandonment of human skill in place of the machine, as was the case in the industrial age. In the near future, AI is predicted to take this to another unprecedented level. Gropius makes clear that high-rise concrete or steel buildings, if planned correctly with ample amount of space in between, should be able to do the job in providing sound residential units for the industrial (modern) man, deprived of the land out of economic necessity. For reference, please see the image below. This is the only part in his book where I disagree with him. Mankind was not meant to construct his home in unnaturally high levels from the soil, hence our innate fear of heights. Anything above 10m is unnatural for domestic life in my opinion. We must reclaim the ground and treat it as gold, thus gardening and common parks are of indispensable value to us.

The care we put into selecting the interior details of our domestic environments, the landscape compositions surrounding our houses, and the refinement of the exterior designs of our buildings have a profound and multifaceted impact on our neighborhoods and, thus, the overarching culture of the region we are in. In short, human beings are like water; we take the form of the container we are in. Therefore, the container (our built environment: Buildings and Landscape) must be composed in a tasteful manner and in harmony with nature. Only then, will our neighborhoods start to be a setting for healthy interactions between other fellow neighbors, which we ever so yearn to revive.

Footnotes:

1. “… There is a kind of symmetry in the thoughts, feelings, and efforts of the human mind. Its taste, intelligence, affections, and conduct are so intimately related, that no preconception can prevent them from being mutually causes and effects. The first thing powerfully operated on, and in its turn proportionally operative, is the taste. The perception of beauty and deformity, of refinement and grossness, of decency and vulgarity, of propriety and in decorum, is the first thing which influences man to attempt an escape from a grovelling, brutish character; a character in which morality is effectually chilled or absolutely frozen. In most persons this perception is awakened by what may be called the exterior of society, particularly by the mode of building. Uncouth, mean, ragged, dirty houses constituting the body of any town, will regularly be accompanied by coarse, grovelling manners. The dress, the furniture, the equipage, the mode of living, and the manners, will all correspond with the appearance of the buildings, and will universally be in every such case of a vulgar and debased nature…” Timothy Dwight IV, American historian (1752-1817). An excerpt from his book: Travels in New-England and New-York
2. “… Encourage ‘a democratic condition of society’ by providing education that not only gave the poor the ability to read and write, but also refinement and taste. Through his various careers, Olmsted’s goal was to help create an American society where all people had the qualities of gentility….” Excerpt from Charles E. Beveridge and Paul Rocheleau’s book on Frederick Law Olmsted, Designing the American Landscape
3. An Excerpt from the 3rd chapter of Frederick Law Olmsted, Designing the American Landacape: “… Olmsted fervently hoped that the great urban park would become a place where all classes would meet and mix. The atmosphere of the park would help to counteract the “heart-hardening” effects of city life.”As a means to education and grace, of sweetness and light,” he asserted, “it is worth more to those who can resort to it than literature or the fine arts in any and all forms.” It was “an educative and civilizing agency, standing in winning competition against the sordid and corrupting temptations of the town. …”
4. See my book review of Scope of Total Architecture by Walter Gropius: https://sahinarikoglu.com/2024/05/19/book-review-scope-of-total-architecture-by-walter-gropius-1955/

This paper was written by Şahin Kaya Arıkoğlu and published on his personal website http://www.sahinarikoglu.com