Development of
recreational opportunities in Kadriorg park comparing with past and present
Kadriorg is one of the
oldest and most valuable park ensembles in Estonia. Like Peterhof Kadriorg was
built by the order of Peter I for artistic and recreational purposes. It is a
monumental complex, which presents an overview of construction styles and the
art of park design origin from different eras (Tamm,1988). It is a good place
for recreation. Nowadays beside offering leisure time to park visitors in
Kadriorg park artificial forms of buildings and areas have come up.
The park aspired to give
recreational opportunities for a large number of visitors. As it was Peter I
wish, everyone could freely visit it. From the beginning the imperator’s park
was public (Abner et al., 2007). That is why, when Peter’s birthday was
celebrated, the concerts organized in his honor everybody could attend them.
Great changes have
taken place in Kadriorg (Fig. 1). In the beginning Lower Park was in the
regular style. Nowadays Lower Park style is more landscaped
Figure 1. Changes of
Kadriorg park
Upper Park has changed
also. On the upper terrace of Upper Garden, instead of a large pond a
rectangular pool was built. The new pool is surrounded by lawns and flowerbeds
(Tamm,1988). Today, this garden is a part of President residence complex and
this place is closed for visitors.
Today the park satisfies
festival-entertaining, memorial, exhibitional, historic- cultural and sporting
functions.
Today the park satisfies
festival-entertaining, memorial, exhibitional, historic- cultural
and sporting functions (Fig. 2).
Figure 2. Different
parts of the park are used by different age people in different seasons- all
year round. Pictures are taken from Kadriorg park page (www.kadriorupark.ee)
Methodology and data
collection
The purpose of
this study was to collect information about the park based
on personal perception. The given work is a result of several stages. The
first phase includes the development of the initial idea, the collection of
primary data and literature, a plan to visit places of study, the preparation
of the writing part. In the second stage the questionnaires were
written, the routes in the parks planned and parks were visited. Finally,
compiled questionnaires,
made discussions with visitors and park employees, researched and analyzed Kadriorg, made photos
and films, drew maps
of the most popular places among
park visitors.The days while visiting Kadriorg were August 6 and 7,
and September 8 and 9.
For the conservation map
park was divided into squares for visiting and
study (Fig.3). Respectively, not to forget to visit
any square, the original route was planned in advance and
while visiting every square was ticked.
Figure 3. Park
squares for visiting
The study of
Kadriorg began from Valge street, in the place of contact
of Kadriorg and Lasnamae (p). So studying the
territory of Kumu museum,
and reaching Maekalda street (q) to Concerts
Garden, went down to Swan pond (r), where the research was
continued. From there, the route led up Weizenbergi
street to Grand Palace (s). Further
down Sea alley to Russalka
monument (t), and from the monument to Japanese
Garden (u). The research of natural style park (v) (w) began from
Japanese Garden, and the route leads to Peter’s house and President
residence. This route was like a base, from which sometimes it was
necessary to deviate visits to all areas.
RESULTS
50 questionnaires were
filled in Kadriorg. In Kadriorg the prevailing groups were the second
age group 21-30 with 32% and the first age group 16-20 with
22%. Each age group is represented by at least
one respondent.
Motives of visiting Kadriorg park
In Kadriorg the dominant
motive is “to spend time in nature and get out from city”, it was mentioned by
74% of the respondents (Fig.4). This motive indicates that the park constitutes
a sort of “oasis”, a refuge far from traffic, noise and pollution from a
city (Chiesura, 2004). Many respondents have also mentioned the need to see other
things than concrete buildings and cars. However they did not want to have
a sharp change from usual surrounding. Answers to the question “how often
people visit parks” showed that 12% of respondents visit parks every day, 38%
every week, 30% at least once a month and 18% sometimes, or rare. Moreover many
people visit namely Kadriorg. That is why the motive “to rest” is quite
popular among respondents (70%).Kadriorg provides a more
familiar, well-organized space, which is attractive as a historical base
and functional by new constructions. The desire to learn and to see something
new is quite high, so motives like: sightseeing and visiting the museums (42%),
to enjoy gardens (50%), to look at beautiful landscapes (38%) and to visit
events (34%) are mentioned quite often. However the motive of
learning (cognition) is addition to the main motive “to be in nature” and
“rest”.
Figure 4. Motives of
visiting Kadriorg park
The historical base in
combination with modern zones for recreation is advance over other parks. Findings
also indicate that 46% of respondents visit the park “to be with family”
and 40% “to spend time with friends”. Nature executes important social
functions, strengthening friendship and family ties and providing safe
and comfortable places for children to play, which are especially important
nowadays in cities. In Kadriorg the importance of motives like: to find
inspiration, to be alone, to do sport and etc increases. It shows that the park
provides the opportunity to be on your own and it is actively used.
The graph ‘different age
categories motives of visiting’ shows that the rest in Kadriorg is equaly
popular among all 3 groups. The difference consists of the way how the park is
visited. Visitors from the youngest age-categories prefer to be alone in
the park or visit it with friends. The second group prefers to spend time with
the family and the third group likes visits to the park alone, also with family
and less with friends (Fig.5).
Figure 5.
Different age groups motives of visiting Kadriorg park
Figure 6.
Different gender groups motives of visiting Kadriorg park
The data from gender
graph shows that women choose Kadriorg more often for the rest, also for
sigtseeing. Men also actively visit this park, but only with the motive “to
de-stress after work” men choose it more often than women (Fig.6).
The most freguently visited places in Kadriorg park and its
analysis
The studies showed that
not all places of the park have the same attractiveness for visitors. Despite
the fact, that every park part has a lot of interesting elements, still some
even historical places are visited less comparing with another places in the
parks. Given results were obtained during collaborative analysis of data from
questionaires and observation. The concentration of visitors are shown on maps
1 and 2. According to comparison of concentration maps of differnet days,
results were obtained, analysed and discribed below.
Map2. The concentration map in Kadriorg
park
The map (Fig.7) with the
main visiting places was done according to two day concentration maps The given
map shows that the southern part of the park predominantly used. There are
concentrated museums, palaces, children’s playground etc. The park with natural
style is visited much less.
Figure 7.
Main concentration places among Kadriorg park visitors
Figure 8. The
difference of park visiting between weekdays and weekends
As to changes occuring
during a week it can be seen less people around Swan pond and KUMU (Main
Art Museum) on weekday comparing with the same time on weekends (Fig.8). On
weekends the use of alleys in the natural style park as for walking also for
running and cycling noticeably increases. On weekends this part of the
park is becoming more “alive”.
Figure
9. Favorite places in Kadriorg
Figure 10. The places where respondents
prefer
to spend more time in Kadriorg
During the studies it
can be noticed that many respondents have often their own route or place where
they prefer to spend time. Thus they do not visit the whole park. The parts in
the park given as option to choose, represent different styles (Fig.9).
National park is a regular park, which was redone and renamed. But, as for many
people the place, behind the palace is assosiated with the park in regular style,
this place was named respectively. Namely this part in regular style is
the most popular among visitors. According to data, the places, where visitors
spent more time is Swan pond and its surroundings. People also like visiting
Russalka memorial and KUMU (Fig.10). Less people choose Palace, but it is still
popular for visiting.
According to data of
people’s concentration, the places are also divided into very popular and
popular and showed in Table 1.
Table 1 Very popular places according to questionnaires and observation
Emotional dimension of visitors’ experience of Kadriorg park
In Kadriorg the most
people feel satisfaction with the park surrounding and recreation
opportunities. 78% of respondents have chosen this option (Fig.11).
The following choice is explained that locals would like to be in nature, in
familiar environment. So the option unity with nature,being relaxed,
carefree and energized is chosen quite often, as Kadriorg is used as a place for
rest. Emotion “happiness” is chosen only by 30%. Using that place to
re-create the spirit, for many people the park has become an integral daily or
weekly routine. That is why visitors do not feel the same like in
the first time.
Figure 13. Positive and negative emotions experienced in Kadriorg
From negative experinces
bad road condition in winter (covered by ice) and a lot of homeless
people were mentioned (Fig.12). In general in Kadriorg people mostly do not
experince negative emotions.
Perception of historical base of Kadriorg park
In Kadriorg 74%of
respondents find the park has more recreational qualities than other public
parks, 24% the same and 2% less.Visitors like the part of the park with the
baroque style and find it in most cases beautiful (82%) (Fig.13).
Respondents also marked
the historical atmosphere and good maintenance. Of course, people
mention it is a bit different from today and belongs to another era, but in
general respondents consider the baroque style and the historical base as
important aspects of these parks.
Figure
13. Visitors’ perception of the baroque style in Kadriorg
Conclusion
Nowadays Kadriorg is
considered as the main place for recreation in Tallinn. The process of
the expansion of city boundaries changes it from historical park to
park, which corresponds to all needs of visitors. People are coming here
to relax and places are often chosen because of their needs. Today
Kadriorg is a park, where combined elements of past and present and it will be
developed more.
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