Urban landscapes of memories. Three parks in Berlin

Urban public open-space design and the creation of atmosphere and environ- mental quality, together with architectural design, can contribute positively to the creation of a sense of place. The character of a place is certainly tied to the over- lapping of elements that shape it but also to the events which have animated it and both the visible and invisible history which have crossed it. Therefore each place expresses in more or less perceptible ways a city’s sense of past. During the past 30 years, through several contemporary urban regeneration projects, public parks have had a decisive role in narrating the history of the place. In the city of Berlin, object of our study, after the fall of the Berlin Wall4 in 1989, the void that was created in the urban fabric by the so-called Death Strip created the occasion for reflecting on a vacant land design project.