The article presents the results of soundscape assessments conducted in urban parks in the Silesian Voivodeship. The Silesian Voivodeship is characterised by a high degree of industrialisation and the greatest population density in Poland. The studies were conducted in the urban parks of all the cities in the voivodeship with populations of over 100,000 citizens. This selection was determined based on acoustic maps that are prepared for cities with populations of over 100,000 citizens as required by law, and on the fact that the role of urban parks is frequently marginalised in the context of city life. The goal of the studies was to define an objective acoustic appeal assessment method for urban parks in city centres. Measurements were carried out in 34 parks located in the centres of 12 cities. A-weighted sound levels LAeq were determined for 107 measuring points in urban parks and the streets adjacent to them. Differences in the A-weighted sound levels LAeq were presented for each studied park and the adjacent streets. Minimum and maximum sound values were subsequently determined for each measuring point. Significant differences in the minimum and maximum sound values in given locations were found despite minor differences in LAeq values. It was also discovered that though parks may often exhibit high A-weighted sound levels LAeq, there are other factors that influence the appeal of park soundscapes.

The article presents a scientific research concerning the role and development of one of the most important leisure and recreation areas in Warsaw — Pole Mokotowskie, located near the city center, in three districts: Ochota, Śródmieście and Mokotów (part of the area is the Park of Józef Piłsudski). The research concentrates on determining the influence of contemporary spatial transformations of the park area on the spatial composition of the park.

The public demand for urban parks, citizens’ use and habits are different in every age and region. But do public parks have some eternal, unchanging values in a field of social welfare? Can we regard the idea as a value, which brought to life the 18th century public park movement in today’s rushing, tinsel and digital world? Can we find any general aspect in park use forms, which is true, even to the casual visitor or a tourist in a historical garden or a daily guest in an average city park. The Budapest Városliget is one of the world’s first urban park, in some ways perhaps the first. The site was used for urban recreation from mid-18th century, and then the city of Pest decided to develop a public park to increase the livability of the city. The plan was drawn up by Heinrich Nebbien between 1813–1816. Although Nebbien’s plan realized partly due to the lack of resources, in the capital’s life the Városliget have been acting – with changing functions and space structure – as a vital part of the open space recreation for 200 years. This article focuses on the role of urban public parks, and analyses the relationship between changing space structure and use on the example of Városliget. The Városliget analysis is based on the structural and park user surveys, which were made during the last three decades. The history of the urban park clearly illustrates that cramming new functions beyond the historical outdoor recreational activities has not increased the value of the park, but significantly deteriorate what is value and what makes the park loveable. It is almost understandable that the park is not on the international tourism program, it does not appear on the map of the capital’s iconic creations, institutions. But it could be there. Everything predestines for it: two centuries of history, the idea of its birth and creation, its location in the city structure, its current old and valuable trees. The Városliget is a value in itself, without stuffing and subsuming with new institutional functions.

This paper presents the nodal nature of park spaces in New York City in the context of the variant use of forms of traditional and alternative mobility in the city. Using comparative analysis of thematic maps and plans of mass and individual transportation, a review of planning documents and in-situ observations in the city area, it was demonstrated that New York parks have become efficient transportation channels for daily migrations within the dense urban fabric. The phenomenal plasticity of park areas in terms of the formation of and adaptation to new uses and the growing scale of the issue prompt a deeper analysis of the phenomenon.

The town of Siemianowice Śląskie is where we can find a palace-and-park complex which nowadays serves as the Town Park. The complex used to be owned by the Henckel von Donnersmarck family; today it is open to everyone looking for either active or passive leisure. Apart from its historical value (the complex being the most significant monument of the town), the park is also of special importance to the environment. It can be seen as an enclave of greenery and a sanctuary for plants and animals. Moreover, together with the neighbouring recreation area and ecological sites, the park contributes to the symbolic “green lungs” of the town

She (Nature) is an eternal present. Past and future are unknown to her. The present is her eternity. She is beneficient. J.W. von Goethe Goethe is speaking about the ever-lasting value and importance of Nature. Even in today’s luminous, rushing and digital world, Goethe’s faithful idea and the theory of Christian Hirschfeld, which brought to life the 18th-century urban public park movement, represents a value. Though the citizens’ use and habits are varied in every age and region, society, the individuals need physical and spiritual recreation offered by urban parks. The overall goal of the research is to highlight the role of natural elements and urban landscape character in space composition means on the example of the two centuries old historic urban park in Budapest, the Városliget, one of the very first urban public parks. Main research questions: What are the main landscape and nature structures and elements that define the composition? What are the main changes in compositional means in the long evolution of the park in the stress of urban development and social change? Can we find universal design means for the general park use forms or does the local spirit play the dominant role in public park design? This study focuses on the composition means over time, in the transformation process of the Budapest Városliget, from the first landscaping and replantation of the swampy area in the outskirt of Pest town at turn of 18–19th century when Nature and her humanized garden and park forms became increasingly recognized as means and purposes of spiritual, physical and societal renewal. The research is based on analyses of ecological, landscape aspects and features, of social, public and political input into planning and building that affected the composition and the construction of the urban public park. The analyses focus on the significant momentums of park evolution, while observations focus on the relations between changing social and landscape aspects in the design and planning process.