Perceptions of urban landscapes for ecological aesthetics

The European Landscape Convention has opened discussions and debates on natural, rural, urban, and peri-urban areas, including land, inland water and marine areas. Among the many ideas and concepts opened by the European Landscape Convention, this text reflects on the definition of landscapes as areas “perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors.” Also, it analyzes what ‘landscape planning’ means in the actions of enhancing, restoring, and creating landscapes. Focusing on urban areas, the first part of the text takes into consideration two important projects in New York City: The High Line and The Brooklyn Bridge Park. Since they are emblematic and well-known landscape architecture projects, the text aimes to present their cultural, ecological and aesthetic processes. It figures out how the perceived areas were recognized as urban landscapes and how they were transformed into democratic public spaces designed through ecological ideas. The second part is about study experiences at the University of Pennsylvania, Department of Landscape Architecture at the Stewart Weitzman School of Design, and the Università Mediterranea of Reggio Calabria, Department of Architecture dArTe. The study sites were selected according to the perception of potential landscapes recognized by populations in three different important cities, each of them characterized by social, political and economic values. The study site in Shanghai was a suburban metropolitan ‘art’ park; in Milan, it was a new ‘beau- tiful’ urban space for the Genoa Gate; in Prague, it was an ‘ornamental’ landscape for an aban- doned industrial urban area along the Vltava River.