Hoskins, Ian

From CollabLandWiki

Hoskins, I. 2001. The Peoples Heritage: Public Parks and Civic Ideals In Debating the City, edited by J Barrett and C Butler-Bowdon, 53-67. Sydney: Historic Houses Trust of New South Wales.

The paper walks through the development of Cook and Phillips Parks in Sydney. It outlines the concern of the heritage of the park from both sides of the argument: whether to develop parks like this in an aggressive manner (like the aquatic centre that was proposed) or in a non-aggressive manner (protecting the heritage of the park in keeping it as a green parkland as it has been for for overa century). Heritage is determined through the debate of exploring contemporary and historic perceptions of parks as these entailed towards culture, nature, heritage, and democracy. So in an aggressive approach as long as it is preserves the character of public space in a positive way for today's society, as above, can be positive and active. Can be percieved as a chapter in the parks history - if its consistant with the parks history. Suggested that heritage values need to be reassessed by using criteria that acknowledges the social value attributed to an item by those who have an attatchment to a place 'in the present' as opposed to the strict thematic criteria applied by the heritage professions on behalf of the people. The publics birthright in regards to heritage is discussed briefly.

Points

• What are the heritage parts of the Square? How close does heritage values of Cathedral Square compare to Place des Terraux in France?
• Is there room for aggressive design and how can this be related/worked with the public of whom the space is designed for? And how can this be justified with point that the aggressive design is in uniform with the always existing principles of the square if it is aggressive/radical?
• Does the other end of the spectrum (the future days of the Square) have any major concerns with heritage from yesterday or that being created today?
• To explore heritage in a 'reasonable' manner (as oulined above) could be interesting in openeing up otherwise closed design oppertunities.