The city of Gzhatsk on the Smolensk road is not too old, but not young either: it began with a river pier in Peter's time and became a district town under Catherine. In 1968, Gzhatsk was renamed Gagarin, since the first cosmonaut was born nearby in the village of Klushino. Space commemorative events are regularly held now, but urban improvement requires widespread restoration. The customer and sponsor of the park reconstruction is the plant of the Austrian company EGGER, which is located in the western industrial zone of Gagarin and plays the role of a city-forming enterprise, providing jobs for 2,500 people out of 30,000 urban population; 95% of the plant's employees are residents of the city and region. In 2015, at the request of EGGER, a closed architectural competition was held for the improvement of the central park. The operator and organizer of the competition, as well as the ideological inspirer and curator of the entire project, was the AGT Communication Agency, and the winner was the project of the Praktika bureau, which is now engaged in its implementation. Such a project organization structure (customer - operator - competition) allows the business to spend money efficiently, achieving the best result.
Architectural Bureau Practice:
“In the fall of 2015, the communication agency AGT approached us with a proposal to take part in a tender for the development of a concept for the reconstruction of a park in the city of Gagarin. As it turned out, the initiative to renew the park belonged to the Austrian company EGGER, a large woodworking company whose plant is located in the city. The EGGER plant opened in Gagarin in 2011, and since then the company has launched various charitable initiatives at the city level.
The park is the most ambitious of its kind. Of course, we liked this example of a civilized approach of the enterprise to building relationships with city residents. Parks as public spaces are a very hot topic. Small towns have traditionally lacked developed public spaces. Despite the fact that in Gagarin, in the wake of events in honor of the first cosmonaut in the seventies, a variety of infrastructure for leisure, recreation and tourism was created. However, now many objects have fallen into disrepair, including the city park.
From a professional point of view, the project of reconstruction and renovation of the park looked very interesting - a city with a history, a private interested customer, assistance from the administration, the park itself with a varied landscape.
We responded with pleasure, prepared a concept and a tender offer. The organizers did not publicly cover the competition, we only know that a total of eight proposals from professional teams from Moscow, St. Petersburg and Yaroslavl took part in it. As a result, it was our application that was chosen by the customer, and at the end of 2015 we got down to work.
The amount of funds allocated annually by EGGER for the implementation of the project is limited, therefore the task was set for a phased reconstruction over several seasons. In the project, it was necessary to take into account all these factors, to think over the stages, to prioritize, to find a compromise between the spectacular design and the elementary provision of the park with litter bins and toilets. Another important task was interaction with the city administration and dialogue with the public. I must say that in the process of discussing the project with the city, the initial ideas were even developed and acquired a larger scale - than we were rather surprised. Of course, the need to take into account the different, far from always coinciding interests of the parties involved (public opinion, EGGER, city administration) creates certain difficulties and forces the architect to move very carefully. Overall, however, we are cautiously optimistic about the future. Even if not all ideas are implemented, the project formulates a program for the further development of the territory, this is a chance to make an important contribution to the infrastructure of Gagarin's public spaces. ***
There are many walking routes through the park, which is dictated by the location of the park in the city - residential areas, a school, and a busy shopping street adjoin the park from different sides. The master plan maintains and develops the original planning structure of the park. The busiest place is the main alley, which was not completed by the builders of the 1970s, the architects of the Praktika bureau intend to extend it to the western border of the park, thus organizing additional transit traffic for pedestrians between neighboring districts of the city. A round spot of a children's playground is planned near the alley. Several abandoned buildings remain in the park, which will be turned into a cafe, a sports club, utility blocks and will help equip the park with the necessary infrastructure. The swampy area in the western part is planned to be drained, replacing it with a sports field, skate tracks and a children's adventure park.
Woodworking is a specialty of the customer's plant, so it is not surprising that many elements of park design will be made of wood. A new accent is a summer stage triangular in plan: the light construction of its walls bears an expressive honeycomb visor. From the Soviet era, a pond with a small island and two wide pedestrian bridges remained in the park - the authors suggested placing benches on them and turning the bridges into gazebos over the water. Not far from the stage by the pond, there will be a section of a wide embankment with wooden decking and seating.
Colored lampshades of park lamps will add mood to people walking and individuality - to the park. In addition, glowing balls representing the planets of the solar system will be hung in the park, supporting the symbolic space "theme" of the city of Gagarin.
The working documentation is almost ready, now the implementation of the first stage of the project is starting: reorganization, cleaning the territory, cleaning the pond. The first objects will appear - an embankment and a playground. The complete renovation will take several seasons. The authors are passionate about their work and hope that the reconstruction of the park will help the citizens to look at their city in a new way.
