The pocket park, located on the roadside of Yongjia South Road, Haidian District, Beijing, has become a good place for nearby residents to walk their babies. Photo by reporter Chen Haibo / Guangming Pictures
Citizens play in the Lehui Small Park in Xuhui District, Shanghai. Xinhua News Agency
A pocket park in Shuangqiao District, Chengde City, Hebei Province, issued by Xinhua News Agency
【Ecological Focus】
As the urbanization development process of mainland China has entered the stock era, urban construction has entered a new stage of local improvement and "micro-space" transformation. As a new form of urban open space, pocket park is not only the most direct place for community activities, but also an important carrier for ecological space to be suitable for production and living space.
In recent years, many pocket parks have been scattered in the streets and alleys of the city like jade beads, small and exquisite, providing a haven for rest and entertainment for busy urbanites, so that people can enjoy the breath of nature and poetic life in the fast-paced life.
Do you still remember when the "little luck" of being in a pocket park became a habit? Do you realize that once as a "supporting role" in the main scenery of the city, the pocket park has become the most frequently photographed "star" in the city's open space?
The beauty of every inch puts happiness in the "pocket".
Different from the civic parks, country parks, forest parks, etc., which are full of trees and greenery, most of the pocket parks are "hidden" at the corners of the streets and alleys, and they are small and ingenious, fine and lively, and there is always unexpected beauty.
Overlooking the Caojiadu Garden at the intersection of Kangding Road and Yuyao Road in Shanghai's Jing'an District, the beautiful nautilus curve layout is pleasing to the eye. The dense bamboo walls, evergreen shrubs, and hydrangeas complement each other in a layered manner, providing citizens with a full supply of "green welfare".
"Nowadays, people's expectations for parks and green spaces have changed a lot, and 'greenery' alone is not enough. Jin Yunfeng, a professor at the Department of Landscape Architecture of Tongji University, told reporters that the park that everyone is looking forward to now can be a leisure space, a physical exercise space, and it is best to be a public cultural space with style, culture and activities.
Isn't this the advantage of pocket parks? The location is flexible, you can see the greenery through the window, move into the park, and have fun and fitness......
"This outdoor smart gym has a good environment and new equipment, and I have a good plan!" "Aunt Wang, a citizen who is exercising in the Maple Leaf Square on Jianshe Road in Chengdu, Sichuan, is full of praise for the smart fitness facilities in this pocket park. With the blessing of technology, she can see the calorie consumption and exercise times in real time, and adjust her exercise intensity at any time.
There are also many cities that incorporate local history and culture into the construction of pocket parks. In the Xinchangshantou Ancient Tree Park in Qingxi Town, Dongguan City, Guangdong Province, a registered 500-year-old Yunnan rough-leaved tree with mottled bark and vicissitudes of life, but still shades the old and young in the village...... In each pocket park, history and culture are inadvertently connected to people's daily lives.
"For pocket parks, design is not the protagonist, but the city and the things that have precipitated in the city, that is, people's emotions, memories, and stories, are the protagonists. Jin Yunfeng said that the pocket park not only enhances the appearance of the city, but also "holds" the happiness of the people.
Each is beautiful, and people's satisfaction is the "gold standard"
As "pushing the window to see the green" and "meeting the green around the corner" have become the new routine, people's expectations for pocket parks have also entered a new stage.
"The success of a pocket park depends on factors such as design, management, and community involvement. Wang Zhongjie, deputy chief engineer of the China Academy of Urban Planning and Design and president of the Landscape Architecture and Landscape Research Branch, believes that only by fully considering the principles of the natural environment, community needs and sustainable development can excellent pocket parks be built.
Located in the pocket park on Xinhua Road in Shanghai's Changning District, the winding path was once covered by sage, starry sky and dwarf pampas reeds, and the reflective mirrors on both sides of the park expanded the field of vision infinitely, and the quiet and mysterious design once made it an "Internet celebrity check-in place". However, due to the lack of long-term and effective maintenance, it is now overgrown with weeds, paper scraps, and plastic packaging everywhere, and it is no longer the bustling scene of people coming and going.
There are also pocket parks, which are ingenious in design, but worthy of scrutiny in terms of functional maintenance. For example, some have set up "reading corners" with free books for the public to read, but now the bookcases are empty, and some have arranged chairs made of steel wire mesh to match the avant-garde and fashionable design theme, but people are afraid to avoid the garbage in the gaps.
"Today, the biggest challenge for pocket parks is that the management and maintenance of content has changed dramatically. Jin Yunfeng said that different spatial endowments, construction ideas, and block environment determine that it is difficult for pocket parks to form a unified management and operation model, which requires us to do our best in design at the same time, but also to do a good job in management "embroidery work", only the satisfaction of the people is the "gold standard".
With the popularity of pocket parks, the comprehensive need for their functions is increasingly mentioned. How to balance the characteristic design and comprehensive functional requirements of pocket parks?
"It is necessary to 'make each one beautiful', so that each pocket park can be integrated and developed with the surrounding urban space in terms of scale, form and function, and become a space for citizens to live a better life. Jin Yunfeng believes that it is also necessary to build a pocket park system based on the city's history, culture and natural ecology, so that it can achieve sustainable development, operation and maintenance, and ultimately achieve "beauty and beauty".
Cultivate both inside and outside, and do a good job in the "micro-classroom" of harmonious coexistence between man and nature
Through the hard practice of "external skills", pocket parks have attracted more and more citizens and become a good place for leisure and entertainment; through the refinement of "internal skills", pocket parks have enriched the urban ecosystem, provided citizens with an excellent place to observe nature and understand ecology, and become a "micro-classroom" and "training ground" for harmonious coexistence between man and nature.
The East Gate Pocket Park of the Temple of Heaven in Beijing is transformed on the basis of the original green space, with streamlined permeable pavement as the axis, laying out small trees, shrubs, ground cover flowers and other plants for landscaping. Walking through it is like being in a pure natural forest. Here, you can not only feel the beauty of nature, but also observe the growth process of plants up close, and learn about their characteristics and habits.
"The pocket park is a 'green island' around the people, so that everyone can learn how the ecosystem works anytime and anywhere, and experience the connection between nature and life. Wang Zhongjie said that pocket parks are miniature models of ecosystems, and the environmental protection methods and skills that people learn in them can be transferred to the real natural environment, so as to promote sustainable development and environmental protection.
In the Yunfeng Garbage Classification Theme Pocket Park in Tiexi District, Shenyang City, games such as interactive sorting puzzles and classification magnetic mazes attracted friends of different ages. "It's a great place to not only relax and exercise, but also to learn knowledge. The integration of characteristic content allows citizens to fully appreciate the significance of garbage classification in the "micro space" of the pocket park.
In Wang Zhongjie's view, the rich interactive scenes provided by the pocket park not only deepen people's understanding of the ecosystem and their awareness of nature conservation, but also improve their ability to solve practical problems. And this kind of subtle ecological education allows people to cope with it when they are in a more complex ecological environment.
In order to expand the influence of ecological education in pocket parks, Wang Zhongjie suggested that the ecological education of pocket parks should be combined with school curricula and public education to form a multi-level and multi-channel education system, and establish a cooperative network through schools, communities, environmental protection organizations and pocket park management agencies to jointly promote people's awareness and participation in ecological environmental protection.
"With the continuous improvement of citizens' ecological awareness, it is expected that pocket parks will not only bring ecological well-being to the people, but also contribute more to the green development of the city. Wang Zhongjie said.
(Reporter Zhang Xiaohua)