Landscape Models of Enhancing the Inherited City Identity

Abstract

The role of landscape planning in preserving the city’s identity is researched. Heritage landscape is considered a concept of integrally planned landscape, recognized as an important city’s identity factor. The landscape has always played a significant role in forming the image of Zagreb. Its strong landscape strategy determined by twentieth-century urban planning gradually loses its clarity over the past decades. The research starts from the thesis that the concept of an integral landscape image should be considered as urban planning heritage that contributes to the preservation of the city’s recognizability. It is necessary to determine the landscape models of its revitalization, adaptation and improvement. Comparative analysis of contemporary landscape strategies of European cities resulted by the identification of landscape model reflected in:

• recognizing landscape as an important formative element of the city;

• overcoming the boundaries between the city and the region and their territorial intertwining;

• determining the starting point of the landscape strategy for the whole city level;

• networking of unbuilt spaces into a recognizable system of green infrastructure;

• ‘conquering’ brownfield areas for new public open spaces;

• including the dynamic features of natural systems in planning process.

By applying a landscape model on the example of Zagreb and other cities, it is possible to protect and enhance their recognizable landscape image, or inherited identity.