The Victorian City Park Union Terrace Gardens is now in an unenviable position: it is fenced off from the neighboring quarters by railways and highways, so it is rarely visited by townspeople, and the authorities are far from using its full potential.
With the money of a private investor, it was decided to turn it into a lively multifunctional public space. For this, it was proposed to raise the garden above the ground so that it could block the highway and the railway. It is also planned to build a cultural center or similar institution there to ensure the use of the park at any time of the year.
Six out of 55 teams were selected to participate in the final of the competition:
"Diller Scofidio + Renfro" together with the landscape bureau OLIN, Norman Foster with Vladimir Djurovic Landscape Architecture, Snohatta and Gareth Hoskins, Gustafson Porter, Mecanoo in collaboration with landscape architect Ian White, West 8.
Entries are presented at an exhibition in Aberdeen, where citizens can vote on their favorite project. To prevent big names from influencing their choice, the authorship of the projects is hidden, so it remains only to guess which of the architects developed this or that option.
It should be noted that some of the local residents are against the reconstruction plan. They already rejected a £ 13m project by Brisac Gonzalez in a referendum last year. They believe that instead of the historic park, they will arrange a "flat concrete square", and only developers will benefit from this.
