Parks Afford Stories: Green Infrastructure Imaginaries and the Aesthetic Evaluation of Spaces

Keywords: Urban aesthetics, urban nature, parks, green infrastructure, aesthetic evaluation, spaces
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 09:40 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 11:00 AM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 14

Abstract

The rise of the park movement in the nineteenth century promised a respite from the evils of urbanization. Green infrastructure was imagined to provide the enjoyment of pure nature in the city. For instance, the Central Park was designed for displaying (constructed) wilderness. The fact that it was appropriated for ball-playing among the lower classes caused great chagrin to its designer Olmsted (Lampugnani 2005). The predominantly aesthetic justification for such projects is motivated by the middle- and upper-class nostalgia for an escape into pristine nature (Harvey 1996, 427; Fletcher 2014; Hampe 2020; Cronon 1995).
These imaginaries of an untouched and aestheticized nature are increasingly gaining hold in Asia as well. For example, in Bangalore, India, there has been a recent shift from viewing urban nature as a source of sustenance for foragers among the urban poor, and to viewing it as a “masterpiece of art, to be gazed upon […], but not to be directly used.” (Nagendra 2016, 191).
An ornamental approach to imagining the role of green infrastructure fails to consider social-ecological ramifications of design decisions. However, instead of demonizing aesthetics, I propose a richer conceptualization that transcends ornamentality. The aesthetic evaluation of spaces is not only limited to pretty appearances, but it also pertains to the kind of stories they afford to the viewer (Franco 2019). These stories can be analyzed beyond the one-dimensional notion of pristine nature and with reference to the question how nature is urbanized and how these processes can be democratized (Swyngedouw 2006).