ATLAS. Comprehending Enclosures of Urban Nature

Abstract The enclosing of spaces of nature in urban contexts is today again a common practice in Paris. Whereas modern planning produced open green spaces, multiple changes in the late 20th century resulted in the revival of the urban park, which refers again to the traditional element of structural enclosing. After defining the enclosing of spaces of nature in Paris as a research object and situating the genre of atlas in research practice, this article elaborates upon the atlas as an epistemic genre and a visual form of knowledge production. Urban landscape projects realized in previous decades are presented while critically discussing the applicability of the atlas to urban and landscape design research.