Problem
Gardens and small public parks don’t give enough relief from noise unless they are well-protected.
Solution
Form some kind of enclosure to protect the interior of a quiet garden from the sights and sounds of passing traffic. If it is a large garden or a park, the enclosure can be soft, can include bushes, trees, slopes, and so on. The smaller the garden, however, the harder and more defined the enclosure must become. In a very small garden, form the enclosure with buildings or walls; even hedges and fences will not be enough to keep out sound.
Related Patterns
… in private houses, both the Half-Hidden Garden (111) and the Private Terrace on the Street (140) require walls. More generally, not only private gardens, but public gardens too, and even small parks and greens - Quiet Backs (59), Accessible Green (60), need some kind of enclosure round them, to make them as beautiful and quiet as possible.
Use the garden wall to help form positive outdoor space - Positive Outdoor Space (106); but pierce it with balustrades and windows to make connections between garden and street, or garden and garden - Private Terrace on the Street (140), Trellised Walk (174), Half-Open Wall (193), and above all, give it openings to make views into other larger and more distant spaces - Hierarchy of Open Space (114), Zen View (134) …
Alexander, Christopher. A Pattern Language: Towns, Buildings, Construction. Oxford University Press, 1977, p. 805.