Principles and Methods of Pocket Park Planning and Design

This book focuses on the planning and design methods of pocket parks in the disciplines of urban planning and landscape architecture. It fills the gap in the current pocket park planning by innovatively exploring the service mechanism and planning methods of the pocket parks to alleviate the scarcity of outdoor recreational spaces in the high-density environments. This book integrates the results of previous research and our latest research results. Taking urban renewal as the planning scenario, the book systematically introduces the basic characteristics of mini-parks, planning principles and methods, and development promotion and assurance strategies. This book is used as a textbook for planning and design courses, as well as a professional reference book for urban planners and landscape architects. The authors have also made great efforts to use simple language and a large number of visual illustrations in the text. Through these approaches, the authors expected that the publication of this book would not only facilitate teaching and practical application, but also attract more interest and attention from ordinary people, and motivate them to actively participate in the planning, design, and management of mini-parks around them. Only when this goal is achieved, can the original value of mini-park development be finally realized.

Zhou Conghui is a full professor and Ph.D advisor of the School of Architecture, Southeast University as well as a National Certified Planner of China, visiting professor of University of Rome (Sapienza), and Visiting Scholar of Columbia University. He got his Ph.D degree in Landscape Architecture from Tongji University. During the pursuit of the doctor's degree, he studied at the Urban Design Program of Columbia University for a one-year’s Ph.D joint-training (2010-2011). Since he worked in Southeast University from 2013, his work has been successively funded by the Young Scholars Program and  General Program of the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Science and Technology Program of the Ministry of Housing and Construction of China. In recent years, he has dedicated to promoting the application of AI technology in urban planning and design practices. He has directed dozens of large-scale planning and design projects, covering urban green space system planning, urban ecological infrastructure planning, suburban wetland design, park planning and design, and waterfront landscape design. These projects have won numerous awards, including IFLA ASIA-PACLA AWARDS (2023), Excellent Urban Planning and Design of China (2021), China Landscape Architecture Society Excellent Planning and Design Award (202) and Science and Technology Progress Award (2020, 2021, 2023), etc."