“Parks of Tomorrow” – the Idea of Park in the Projects of the Architects of Modernity Cover Image

„Parki jutra” – idea parku w projektach architektów nowoczesności
“Parks of Tomorrow” – the Idea of Park in the Projects of the Architects of Modernity

Author(s): Ireneusz Gielata
Subject(s): Philosophy, Language and Literature Studies, Studies of Literature, French Literature
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: park; Voltaire; Candide; modernity; consumption

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the transformations of the idea of park in modernity. In the Age of Enlightenment Europe replaced the white of medieval cathedrals with the green of parks. A man, like Candide from Voltaire’s satire, started to “cultivate his garden,” changing private parks in public spaces. As a consequence of that process the idea of park as a place where you could experience beauty and pleasure completely “vanished”. Urban green spaces started to be determined by an efficacy parameter – which can be witnessed in Le Corbusier’s or Ebenezer Howard’s projects – thus opening the way for transforming former landscape parks into modern places of consumption: commercial parks and amusement parks.

  • Issue Year: 2018
  • Issue No: 1 (11)
  • Page Range: 55-69
  • Page Count: 15
  • Language: Polish