Garden and public parks

How I see gardens and public parks is as gathering points. They are often placed in residential areas or small communities. They serve as green lungs to the area. They are the points where everyone comes out to sit, relax, enjoy nature, exercise etc. I feel such a meeting point is an excellent place to know what the community is like. These places reflect the people using it which gives it identity and in return people are able to form associations with it and connect with it.

Today everyone is pre occupied with themselves. In this digital age, we don’t even know who our next door neighbour is? A close knit community is the one where people feel more secure.  While on the other hand, unknown people breed a sense of insecurity. There is no trust and reliance on each other.

In such cases I feel the need of strengthening common places like the parks and the gardens, where most of the people gather. If even at such places, people seclude and cut off from others then that’s indeed a problem. A small but significant difference can be made with slight changes in the seating at these places. I feel sitting allows you to start conversations. You talk over coffee while sitting, most meetings are held with people sitting around tables, significant deals and agreements are sealed across the table, panchayats who took important decisions were held sitting under the tree, friends chill out sitting on the college stairs after the class.  So I feel sitting and interacting go a long way and to strike good conversations, right seating is absolutely essential.

In public parks, benches and seats are placed linearly. This is quite opposite to the way we sit and interact. In absence of any furniture, the patterns formed while sitting together in a group are usually ellipses and more organic forms. Linearly placed furniture allows you to sit secluded without bothering to see the people around you. Of course that is a situation that might be desirable sometimes but at other times the benches should encourage you sit facing each other or start a conversation. Rather than people being forced to adapt , it should be the other way round.

I would like to know your opinion on this.