Parque da Cidade do Porto

The City Park (Parque da Cidade) of Porto, in Portugal, is an example of a park designed for contemplation and entertainment. The 83 ha green space facing the Atlantic Ocean was inaugurated in 1993 and serves as one of most important green areas of the city and one of its major tourist attractions. The author of the project, Sidónio Pardal, describes his creation as follows:

The Park’s landscape is an end in itself and expresses its essence. It doesn’t attempt to imitate nature and has no other purpose than direct use as a public urban space for recreation activities and contemplation (…)

The large size of the park and excellent local conditions enabled the use of very strong contemplative design strategies and the application of main archetypal elements in the design, such as:

1. Long distance view, with the possibility of viewing further than 400 meters away enabling us to view three planes — fore, middle and background. The comfort of long vistas was proven as one of the most important qualities that have positive effects on our restorative and contemplative experience. It is also good for our ocular accommodation.

2. The coastline of the Atlantic Ocean and a valley corridor are two structural archetypal elements. According to C.G. Jung’s dream analysis, the ocean and valley are existential experiences existing in the collective unconscious and significantly influence mind recovery .

3. The water basins with the still water mirror reflecting the sky, stimulates us to look up to the sky and direct our attention to its vastness. 
4. The areas in the park with a high density of tall trees that give shade and cool shelter on hot sunny days and shaded narrow, windy paths through the greenery increases a sense of solitude. Those paths lead to radical openings of views and large clearings with long vistas.

case study of Parque da Cidade — map of the park with the locations of landscape settings captured for the experiment

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