NZ visual diary - entry 71

Wynyard Quarter pocket park

There is something refreshingly civic and egalitarian about the pocket park concept.

As public spaces, pocket parks blend two thematic elements of civic celebration: they perform utilitarian function as recreational places, and they offer an aesthetic echo of parks as sylvan sanctuary.

Not to put too fine a point on the democratic nature of pocket parks, they feel to me admirably egalitarian. Outsized public parks often exude qualities of grandeur and elegance, and perhaps nobility. Indeed, in New Zealand, as is the case in much of the Commonwealth, grand public parks are often called domains, a phrase imbued with aristocratic sentiments.

Pocket parks, especially those in urban settings, are by category small, local and informal. That said, the pocket parks in Auckland, and notably across Wynyard Quarter, are demonstrably beautiful. The skilled hand of a landscape architect is self-evident.

The well executed pocket park reflects unadorned beauty, of style without pretence.