International Design Competition for the Central City Square of Rahovec Results Announced

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International Design Competition for the Central City Square of Rahovec Results Announced

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Announcement / News

The International Design Competition for Central City Square of Rahovec is organized within the project Leading Urban Change in Rahovec through revitalization of the Central City Square.

The aim of the project is to promote urban regeneration and the development of public spaces through inclusive, transparent and innovative methods of urban planning and design.

First Prize – URBAN SPACE

Name: Mutual Atelier

Participants: Thomas Boerendonk, Daniel Arce Chu, Nguyen Duy Minh

The project builds on the opportunity offered by the relocation of the football stadium to convert the central area of Rahovec into a constellation of well-articulated public spaces. The scheme’s bold approach to urban form – a circle – provides a memorable identity for Rohevec’s city centre and public life to thrive. This scheme is able to both unite the whole of the site while creating unique zones for the square’s diverse edge conditions. At the centre sits a large circular clearing, a wide multifunctional plaza that can accommodate large events while also providing space for daily functions of multiple actors simultaneously. The bold circular design of the square is supported by a canopy that connects new and existing buildings, offers an elevated promenade, creates shade and rain protection when needed, secures the pedestrian character of the area and allows for a wide range of temporary uses. The scheme’s comfort at both an urban scale of a shared grand room and at a human scale to be meandering under the trees was a natural transition and empathetic to the spatial needs for international festivals and daily needs of moving through the porosity of the site. It creates identity through a robust iconic form, a sense of monumentality, a capacity to transcend a sense of timelessness and to symbolize the democratic character of the central square. It possesses the potential to convert itself into a national landmark and will provide a memorable identity for Rahevec’s city centre.

The project furthermore articulates and organizes a series of secondary public spaces. The green character of the existing park is intensified and extended beyond its current boundaries, providing a renewed sense of climate comfort and connection to nature of the whole area. The “recreational square” is an area that is simultaneously paved and planted with trees, creating an interesting transition with the rest of the city and able to accommodate a wide diversity of activities. While two smaller but distinct public squares are developed around the proposed community centre and indoor market, the scheme calls for urban densification of the surrounding areas. This could perhaps lead to a conversation on the opportunity to further develop the areas that are now proposed for parking lots.

International Design Competition for the Central City Square of Rahovec Results Announced

The jury also appreciated the simple elegance of the river being revealed as well as addressing the flooding of the park into a bold feature to punctuate the public spaces transition into the valley’s landscape, the selection of materials and the treatment of urban scale from grandeur to situating micro-climates. The jury believes that this scheme could benefit from inputs of the two other finalists as it could add a bit of joy, playfulness, biodiversity and weaving the urban flows.

For more information visit: https://centralsquare-rahovec.info/first-prize-urban-space/

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