Yerevan center urban parks and garden squares: Places for people, places of meanings

Abstract

In the article, urban parks and garden squares are considered the most important places that form and/or demonstrate the image and culture of the city. The physical spaces of urban parks and garden squares allow organizing urban everyday practices, which are the basis for reproducing the social structure. In this perspective, it is essential to describe the components of the public spaces of Yerevan city the public space of urban parks and garden squares as spaces of socially structured everyday practices. The purpose of this article is to present the characteristics of the formation and transformation of the physical, social and symbolic structures of the public spaces of urban gardens and parks in Yerevan with reference to the particularities of the formation and development of public space. For that purpose, a qualitative study was conducted. Methods of document analysis, thematic interviews, mental mapping, observations, and expert interviews were implemented. Local parks (Children's Park, English Park, and Lovers' Park) and garden squares (Al. Tamanyan, Misak Manushyan, M. Saryan, and Komitas) were chosen as the main target places. Grounded on D. Simon's triadic interpretation of place, the data analysis allows describing the issues of formation and transformation of physical, social, and symbolic structures of Yerevan Center urban parks and garden squares.

Keywords

• urban park
• garden square
• urban space
• place
• people in place
• geographical ensemble
• genius loci
• mental maps