Urban green spaces in Buenos Aires and Christchurch

Abstract

Even though New Zealand and Argentina are situated in different geographical regions, are of dissimilar size and have different histories of development, their urban open green spaces share some similarities. Argentina and New Zealand both have prototypes of design styles and planting design choices from Europe. Most green spaces in Argentina have developed from French, Spanish and Italian prototypes, while New Zealand adopted mostly English models. This article considers two case studies—Buenos Aires in Argentina and Christchurch in New Zealand—to analyse and compare philosophical and design trends in the development of local green spaces in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The paper also critically evaluates current globalisation flows in landscape design, particularly the influences of Western landscape consumerism that have resulted in the acceptance of particular urban green area elements such as public parks with vast lawns and scattered trees, and special ‘tropical paradise’ landscapes of hotels and shopping malls. The growing opposition to this globalisation process in urban green spaces (for example reassessment of native plant communities and new landscape designs that address local identity) is also discussed.