At the end of October, Kazan hosted the World Urban Parks Congress dedicated to city parks. We spoke with several architects who visited the forum about their impressions by asking the following questions:
- Is it the first time at such a congress?
- What are the overall impressions in general and compared to other similar forums?
- Did you manage to learn something new at WUP? What are the most interesting discussions, impressions, projects - what could be especially noted?
- About parks in general: super-advice to yourself and colleagues: what do you think a modern architect who designs in a city needs to know about parks, landscapes, and public space improvement, first of all? Most importantly, basic knowledge or principle.
Natalia Sidorova, DNK ag
1
This is my first time at this congress. DNK ag was invited by the program management of the congress, agency CITYMAKERS. Landscape design is not our main profile, but we are always very sensitive to the landscape and environmental issues in our works … And we are flattered that the organizers of the congress were able to appreciate this, and invited me as a speaker to the session “View from the landscape. A New Approach to Industrial Heritage”, moderated by Evert Verhagen. An urbanist, founder of Creative Cities and Reuse BV, Verhagen, he works a lot with former industrial territories, so the choice of the moderator was obvious.
2
WUP was held for the first time in our country. Overall, I have a very positive impression. In terms of the level of organization of the event, approach to problems, the level of experts, the substantiveness and detail of the discussion, I am ready to compare it with the WAF, although in essence these are very different events. There were very interesting lectures and specialized sessions at WUP, including: about parks in a harsh climate, about management and economic models of public spaces, about the features of landscape regeneration during redevelopment, there was even a session dedicated to the space of cemeteries. There were a lot of people: the halls were almost always packed. And most importantly, all the discussions were to the point, with detailed examples, specific advice, technologies, and not general statements about the good of man, which you often hear at such events.
3
A landscape project cannot have a final solution, it develops all the time in time, depending on the goal setting at each stage of development. In this regard, an interesting example was at our session “View from the landscape. A new approach to industrial heritage”by Benjamin Walker, director of British LDA Design.
It was about a large-scale project of redevelopment of the territory of the historic Battersea power plant in the south of London. According to the master plan, Battersea and the adjacent plot (only 17 hectares) should turn into a new urban area with residential and business development, appropriate infrastructure and retail, as well as a city park on the banks of the Thames and public spaces with a total area of 9 hectares, which are designed by LDA Design … But at the first stage, the task was to open and reload the territory with minimal means: to make it attractive both for further investments and for citizens of different ages. And from the very beginning, the developer began to actively interact with architects. As a result, in a small area, they simply broke a lawn, put sun loungers, hung a screen and turned out to be a mini-cinema in the open air. And the entrance to the territory was opened through the Grosvenor railway bridge, which effectively accentuates the "entry" into the new space. The minimal improvement and active advertising campaign on the part of the developer made this place very popular at once and helped to "promote" it for further development … This is how the work on the redevelopment of territories should begin in stages, which is a whole complex of activities behind which there is research, an interdisciplinary approach, and development of development scenarios at each stage. This was not a discovery for me, I just became convinced of it once again.
Also, many examples at the congress were devoted to active interaction with local communities. According to many experts, it can be both a catalyst for processes and a manipulator. But without the opinion and feedback of people, those for whom, in fact, all changes in the city, including landscaping, are being made, one cannot do. And only in this case the space will be alive and in demand.
We still associate landscape design with beautiful visualization of landscaping, paving and landscaping at the level of benches and lanterns. In fact, the problematic is much broader and deeper. And in the speeches of speakers at the forum, both foreign and Russian, the topic of landscape transformations was discussed at the level of creating an ecological framework and regenerating territories, regardless of the scale of the project. Of the domestic projects, the most illustrative example in this context is the project for the improvement of Lake Kaban in Tatarstan, which was implemented on the basis of the concept of Turenscape's Chinese colleagues. Part of this project was water purification activities using special plants placed along the lake shore. And as studies have shown - it works, the water is cleaner! Of course, such solutions are always high-tech and expensive.
It is interesting that in her speech Natalya Fishman-Bekmambetova admitted that if she knew what difficulties she would have to face when implementing this project at the very beginning, she might not have dared to do it. But he doesn’t regret it, of course.
4
Today, spaces and functions are intermingled, which is why modern projects require an integrated approach. Everything requires professionalism and the work of a whole team.
For myself, I am more and more convinced that architecture and landscape do not just interact, but interpenetrate each other. Therefore, the theme of my speech at the congress was “Inclusion of landscape into architecture”. Everything works in context. For landscape, the context is architecture, and for architecture, the landscape.
Ekaterina Goldberg, Orchestra Design
1
It was at the park congress for the first time, but was earlier at other international forums. I really liked that the forum is specialized. There was an opportunity to discuss the parks in more detail from different sides and look at them in a broader context.
2-3
Most of all, I was interested in the stories of urban planning mistakes, why and how they happened, and most importantly, how could have been done differently. They are rarely talked about on the forums, but this time there were several useful analyzes of such cases. For example, Ken Smith provided an example of a former industrial area where he planned to preserve industrial sites and integrate them into a park. But as a result, everything was demolished. And although a green zone was also created, it no longer reflects the identity of the place and its history at all. I also realized for the first time that at last Russian cases look at such international congresses as absolutely equal in relation to international ones. Now a full-fledged dialogue and exchange of experience between Russian and foreign experts has become possible. It is very nice.
4
The main advice for Russia is to negotiate the terms of projects: both the design and supervision stages. Normal design and construction terms and the participation of architects at all stages of the project will allow us all to reach a completely different level of quality of the implemented projects.
And the second important advice is not to be afraid of temporary activation, the launch of the project even before the full-fledged construction, already from the moment of concept development. To create life in spaces and to design within this life is the best solution.
Mikhail Beilin, CitizenStudio
The main thesis: parks are comfort zones. And they must be designed in such a way as to give a person the opportunity for the most varied, but certainly comfortable pastime. In other words, the park is a place for completely different people. Young people, parents with small children, retirees and so on. One can hardly think of a more banal maxim. But, and this is especially true for local parks, this is a territory of absolute democracy and the intersection of the interests of people who consider it their own. This means that they should be able to coexist without interfering with each other. In this sense, the development of parks and public space in general should make citizens more tolerant of each other, and society more free. Let us have to go to this through the fenced "Pit" and the Ekatirinburg fences.
Vera Butko, Anton Nadtochy, ATRIUM
1
We are at the WUP for the first time; the forum is very large-scale, representative, pretentious and despite this lively; in Kazan they know how to organize big festivals. Their structure is also clear, it is already well established: sessions, reports, meetings are going on in parallel. There are two types of festivals - some hold a competition, like, say, a Biennale or WAF, and projects become the main topic of discussion. WUP is a forum without a competition, its focus was more on topics than on discussion of specific works, although examples, of course, also appeared, depending on the reports.
An interesting fact is that the theme of parks and public spaces has become so popular that it has been for several years to arrange large-scale status events. It would seem that parks are a narrow topic, but the congress is worldwide. This is encouraging and encouraging in any case. When it comes to specific topics, as at the current WUP, where they discussed, in particular, the cemeteries and parks of the northern territories - something that previously did not come up as a separate issue, it seems, never even once. You understand that the topic has acquired a comprehensive character.
2-3
We took part in a session dedicated to public spaces in a harsh climate: together with the chief architect of the Sakha Republic, Irina Alekseeva, we showed the project “
Park of Future Generations”, which won the competition and is now gradually being implemented. We found it interesting that Susan Holdsworth's story about the urban initiatives of the city of Edmonton from the Canadian state of Alberta: no megaprojects, point-like and, in fact, fairly simple implementations aimed at improving urban life. I must say, we were surprised to learn from the speech of the Acting Governor of the Murmansk Region that in Murmansk they are now actively involved in improvement projects. It seems that parks used to be the theme, if not of the subtropics, then of the middle zone and, to a greater extent, of the capitals. Now a lot is being done in northern cities, there is even a feeling that the emphasis has shifted to the north.
We consider it positive that at the congress they did not discuss just landscape design: grass, bushes or lawns. At our session, no one discussed, say, reindeer lichen. The conversation went in a completely different context, in particular, it was about the fact that in a harsh climate people are not drawn out into the cold, and you need to look for ways that can somehow push them to meet and communicate more often.
Of course, it is impossible to visit and evaluate everything on such forums, since a lot is going on in parallel. But there were many interesting events, for example, an interview with Sergei Kapkov, now the head of the Center for Studies of the Economics of Culture and Urban Development at the Faculty of Economics of Moscow State University, there is also a lot being done for northern cities.
4
When starting to work with any territory, it is important “on the shore” to negotiate with the customer who will design the landscape and what place can be assigned to it in the project, what are the opportunities and limitations. This will allow you to immediately begin to think over the connections and scenarios of the behavior of people not only in the building, but also around it, to propose the logic of interaction between the building and the city. For example, if we are talking about a school, we ask the question: will the school territory be behind a fence or will it be used as an urban area? Without agreeing at the first stage, you can then get a conflict, so it is better to ask questions from the first minute.
Since our architecture is always integrated into the landscape and serves as its thoughtful continuation, it is especially important for us to be able to influence the landscape design, ideally to make it ourselves. Our buildings are one with their surroundings, they interact with each other. Therefore, we strive to make the landscape an active "partner" - for example, if there is no natural relief on the site, we add an artificial one.
Another argument in favor of an attentive attitude to the landscape - now the height has risen sharply and the land has become the fifth facade, which is interesting to look at from top to bottom - what we see at the same time should be a meaningful picture, a natural part of the complex and its thoughtful completion.
Anna Ischenko, Wowhaus
1
The World Park Congress is a relatively new story, it is being held in Russia for the first time, and I was also there for the first time. The impressions are the most positive: interesting stories of participants, both from our country and foreign colleagues. It would seem that parks are a narrow topic, but a dialogue on a wide range of issues arose at the forum: parks became an occasion for discussing what it is like for a person to live in a city in general, what a modern city is and how it should be developed.
It is quite difficult to compare with other forums, the FFM is a place for policy statements, also large-scale, of course; almost immediately after, I managed to visit Forum 100+ in Yekaterinburg, this is a more highly specialized event, so the messages on it were drier. And at WUP, many speakers spoke very enthusiastically, with glowing eyes, which, of course, inspires. The topic itself is exciting: five of our employees went there on their own, taking a vacation at their own expense, we did not know, we only met at the forum.
2-3
All the panel discussions we were able to attend turned out to be very informative. Although from the organizational drawbacks - due to the fact that the sessions were held in parallel, it was not possible to visit everything that I wanted. I was personally interested in reports about work similar to ours, about creating projects of a comfortable urban environment - not iconic and pretentious, but local, but really changing the lives of people living in a certain area.
Everyone knows how Muscovites react to improvement, and it was interesting for me to hear how such problems are solved in other cities. How to interact with people at the design stage and how when the object has already been implemented. It would seem that the life of an object after implementation is not a matter of design, but of operation. But at this forum, I realized what contribution volunteers make to maintaining the life of green areas - this is super-important, because it does not even save money, but it helps to foster a common spirit - when people begin to treat a place as their own, like their own apartment.
Although it was said there that it is still difficult for us to set up such volunteer mechanisms: for example, when money for maintaining the park has already been allocated, then even if there are volunteers, it will not be possible to redistribute the budget - funds must be spent, and it is not yet clear how we can regulate such things.
But what impressed me most, oddly enough, was the plenary session. They are usually not expected to do anything, respected people make inspiring, but at times soporific speeches. But Gil Peñalosa came out - and gave an incredible, radical punk presentation: he spoke incendiaryly about how urban planning at some point brought cities to a standstill, and we began to build parking instead of parks … His speech gave everyone an incredible flow of energy and enthusiasm.
4
Super tip: If you are tackling urban public spaces and parks, remember that this area needs to clearly separate creativity from expression, more so than designing the bulk architecture of city houses. Here, in our field, an architect is practically a medium, a communicator between the community, the existing environment, and the new environment that he sees and would like to create.
We must understand that we cannot compose a monument to ourselves, leave it and leave. This will not happen. If you have chosen this area, you will have to communicate a lot, explain, listen. But at the same time, it is also necessary to understand that it is impossible to listen to everyone and please everyone. Either way, our job is the art of compromise.
Oleg Shapiro, Wowhaus
In my opinion, the park is a separate, large, serious object of the urban area. The park is not a design “sowing”, but a serious task. Therefore, it is necessary to undertake its design by those who understand the seriousness of the task. He understands that this is an important part of the city, that it affects a large territory, that it is associated with the urban context, that it is used by a large number of people, that parks are different. It includes many tasks, dendrological, aesthetic, any. It is a very special but important site in the city that has only recently been re-realized.
The Forum seemed to me to be a very well-organized event, many important people and professionals from all over the world came there. I think everyone who is seriously involved in parks was there. It was seen how many professionals are seriously devoting their lives to such urban formations as parks. How important it is to have them, how the city and its inhabitants need them. For example, Mary Bowman showed a huge park, 40 hectares around the Eiffel Tower, which she is currently working on, having won the competition. To occupy 40 hectares in the center of one of the oldest cities in the world with a park - it seems to me that this is a very important fact, illustrating the importance of the topic.
