landscape_fluxes-Salina Park


Location: Cyprus, Larnaca
Description:
The project "landscape_fluxes" was awarded with the 2nd Prize at the Architectural Competition for Salina Park in Larnaca, Cyprus in 2020. In the current situation is an abandoned green space of 24 sqm in a central area in the city. It is an enclosed and introverted space, characterized by isolation, a place inaccessible to public use, especially from the main part of the city road. The proposal creates a pole of attraction for local and supra-local uses, in the framework of a holistic landscape eco_strategy. The main objectives are: • to create an open accessible public space, • to create a contemporary urban park with ecological-bioclimatic character that gradually leads the visitor from the city’s buzz to an enclosed landscape of recreation, • to emphasize the social dimension, • to integrate new informative and management technologies (smart park). The central idea derives from the need to create a well-organized area of urban nature in a mutual ‘osmosis’ between the park and the city. The project envisions a field of landscape fluxes, a dynamic new landscape, a permeable green buffer zone of passages in which osmotic relations can be developed from the city towards the new park. A filter of greenery and an introductory square, leads to the main area of the park – an introverted clearing of recreation for outdoor activities. The proposal is based on a design strategy elaborated in three organizational axes: • accessibility, connection with the urban fabric • plantation as an element of structural organization • the various local identities within the site At the contact with the city, an entrance plaza at the highest level as an urban balcony provides a general view of the park. Right afterward, the entrance to the park is realized through the terraced steps –terraced plazas of stabilized soil that may also host temporal exhibitions. A filter of greenery that incorporates the majority of the existing trees constitutes the urban forest in this zone that hosts the Mediterranean gardens, rest areas, and picnic areas. This shaded green zone leads to the main area of the park that the visitor gradually discovers. In the main area there is a large meadow for leisure and outdoor activities, rest areas and recreational zones, the clearing-events place where the cafe-restaurant is located - a metal structure with corten steel facades. Along with this central meadow, various thematic landscape zones and uses are proposed, such as the amphitheater embedded to the existing slope, the water garden - a small artificial wetland, the urban orchards where the citizens may participate, and playgrounds and outdoor gyms. The clearing is defined by the main serpentine path of stabilized soil for wandering that traverses all the different landscapes and uses. At various positions of the site, small informative kiosks of corten steel are located. On each side of the park, there are secondary entrances from the neighbourhoods. Significant role to the design approach plays the sustainability – ecological design and the intention to create a smart park, either in terms of management issues (collecting rainwater, photovoltaic panels, smart digital sensors) or in terms of information such as signage based on interactive screens and qr-codes as well as big data projection screens. By using ecology as a spatial and biological framework, the proposal aims to create a dynamic landscape where the process is in the epicentre. The ecological design as a medium of creative transformation will give a vivid natural environment where the new uses will activate socially the place.
Project Manager:
topio7 architects
Other team members:
Katerina Andritsou
Panita Karamanea
Thanasis Polyzoidis
Company information:
topio7 ;
https://topio7architects.gr/;