ABSTRACT
Great civilizations allocate open space to public and non-productive uses. Historically, this has included gardens, temple compounds, ceremonial grounds, outdoor markets, social places, gymnasia for exercise and recreation, burial grounds, hunting and wildlife reserves. All this land is now classified by planners as “public open space”, because the land is accessible and unbuilt. It is a term which ignores the distinction between parks and greenways. Parks are for protection (Fig. 4.1). Greenways are for movement. The reasons for making public open space are multifarious. Lynch, as quoted above, was right to protest that “the physical types of open space presently designed are astonishingly limited”.
