Landscape of many senses by the example of pocket parks in Cracow

Abstract

The aim of this article is to show 31 pocket parks that have already been realized in Cracow on aspects connected with their multi-sensory perception and their evaluation. Highly developed sensory experience redress the human scale of a city, so an active participant of urban space co-creates a place, giving it new meanings. Pocket parks in Cracow known as Cracovian’s Gardens, have an impact in different range on 5 basic human senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste). Very often this realizations are attractive in terms of function, integrated with existing context and adapted to the needs of local community. In the area of greenery there is proposed different plant species which have varied forms (trees, bushes, grass, perennial) and are blend in with existing area. Pocket parks in Cracow are devided in several functional zones, the road surfaces and urban furniture are realized with attention, there are often some individual solutions of small architecture. When analysing Cracovian’s Gardens, particular attention was paid to the sounds which are present in parks. For this purpose the soundscape of 16 chosen parks was recorded by using Zoom H1n voice recorder. The sound observations were compared with data from acustic map of Cracow. From the analysis of location concerning 31 pocket parks, we can observe that most of them are located near busy streets, so also in area with increased noise levels (from 50 to 75 dB). The localization from the city center does not have a strong impact on this factor, but important is the role of high buildings, which in some examples of pocket parks, function as acoustic screens. If the specific area affects many senses, so also through their prism we make an subjective evaluation of it. So therefore, even the area with high noise level could be evaluated positively, and so are the pocket parks in Cracow. However, it is worth considering by designing new pocket parks, to use water elements (fountain, water wall), which emit sounds similar to the white noise. This special sound could eliminate an unwanted traffic noise. Since now, pocket parks in Cracow were not analised in aspects of their soundscape. This article could initiate more detailed studies on this topic