Public Space as Landscape Experience of Happiness: A Surprise Public Garden amidst Water and Large Blocks of Woodland

Abstract

Urban public space is not a phenomenon of the twenty first century. It originated with the public parks of the mid-nineteenth century which were a considerable part of the urban fabric (Chadwick, 1966). Urban parks and open spaces always represented a significant resource in cities and were considered as the best means to promote the health, longevity and comfort of their inhabitants. The belief that public green spaces were inherently beneficial to the health of people arose from a theory evolved by doctors in the late eighteenth century, the so-called theory of miasma. The theory held that all disease was due to bad air, and it fostered the belief that access to fresh air could reduce the incidence of disease.