The Japanese city of Sapporo has invested in recent years in the creation of large sculpture parks on the outskirts of the city and in the metropolitan area, thereby recovering run down areas and abandoned industrial sites for public use. The examples given here follow two main tendencies: one, more traditional, where works by different artists are sited inside green areas (the Hiroba Park and the Park of the Arts) and another, more radical, where the design of the whole park is performed by a single sculptor (Asuka Kunimatsu for Ishiyama Ryokuchi and Isamu Noguchi for the Moere-Numa Park), with the result that the art and nature aspects are closely correlated.
Keywords: Green architecture; sculpture parks; urban redevelopment