ABSTRACT
Historically, park systems were conceived in relation to social and environmental reform. They were a foil to polluting and congested industrial centres and offered respite and recreation. They responded to the social and ecological imbalances of the 19th century. In the 21st century, a rearticulation of metropolitan park systems is an absolute necessity, corresponding global warming, growing social disparity, and advocacy for human and non-human co-existence. In the urbanised world, new metropolitan park systems are being created through recovering brownfield sites and linking to existing parks and parkways. In the rapidly urbanising world, there remain opportunities to conserve large swaths of land—as metropolitan park constellations. Ho Chi Minh City (HCMC, urbanised yet expanding and with ample brownfields and large swaths of undeveloped open spaces) could move from one of the world's lowest allocations of open space per capita to one well-endowed with parks of various scales and nature reserves. Alternative readings of the ‘as found’ topography, water, and vegetal system can foreshadow a radical vision where ecological systems determine rich metropolitan park constellations. It would require strategic choices of where to not build and demands unwavering political courage as well as creative management and financing, maintenance, and governance mechanisms.
