Looking at the urban environment, this week’s curated selection of the Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights interventions in public spaces, submitted by the ArchDaily Community. Suitable for this monthly topic, the article underlines worldwide approaches that tackle the challenges of these areas through the introduction of innovative solutions.
Exploring a multitude of methods fitting for different contexts, this feature presents a tactical urban strategy implemented in a neighborhood in Kosovo and micro-mobility measures in Italy. Other projects evoke public approaches in private developments and enhanced historical and cultural connections between parks, buildings, and cities. In addition, this roundup showcases conceptual interventions that tackle social distancing and the challenges of the pandemic, in order to allow people to move freely and safely across space.
Read on to discover 10 curated projects highlighting interventions in public spaces, along with their project descriptions from the architects.
FOUN’TA’SY
Public Housing Enterprise J.S.C
Tactical methods are proven to be efficient methods for shaping urban environments, not only financially but also execution wise. Such methods can also serve as an experimental phase before the typical intervention can occur. This is why these methods were chosen for FOUN’TA’SY project on Ulpiana neighborhood - Ulpiana itself being a neighborhood with many qualities: being the first multistory residential neighborhood of Prishtina, having a central position to the city, and having the greatest potential to initiate change for better.
ParkLANE
Elena Cantoni and Silvia Pusceddu
All over the world in many cities, the only realistic form of transportation is the CAR and the result is a massive investment in roads, highways, parking… If we imagine a city without cars, traffic, noise and air pollution it will open up completely new possibilities to rethink our way to live and move in the city. Micro-mobility is the solution to reconfigure our cities.
The Estate
The intention of this study is to bring awareness to a critical site like Ballard Estate, in the Fort Area because it has the opportunity of invoking a structured public approach to a commercial site. This can be done at both levels, the macro-level with the overall planning and development, as well as the micro-level by magnifying the minute details such as the provision of street elements that complement the architectural style of the heritage buildings.
Artist/Artisan Studios and Public Park
Not an architecture, but a system. The Project Area identifies a connection perimeter between historical and cultural presences and outstanding architectures of excellent quality, The Pyramid of Cestius, the Aurelian walls, the non-Catholic cemetery, Monte Testaccio, and the post office building, magnificent architecture of Italian Rationalism by the master Adalberto Libera. In this context, the compositional lightness is a creative gesture, a hinge, a formal mediation that does not want to compete with the architectures mentioned above. A project that does not subdue, but dialogues with the context, qualitatively elevating itself.
Landscape_Fluxes
Topio7 Architects-Landscape Architects
The project "landscape_fluxes" was awarded the 2nd Prize at the Architectural Competition for Salina Park in Larnaca, Cyprus. 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.
Oasis-Playground
The ‘Oasis-playground’ project aims to remodel and rebrand an abandoned pharmaceutical company's factory zone built in the 1980s. If it was an industrial site in the '80s that could solve economic deficiencies, it is now a project that suggests that it can serve as a small oasis to solve emotional deficiencies in the city as a playground where people can mingle, laugh, rest, and play together.
Sheikh Zayed Plaza
Estúdio Leonardo Zanatta
If we look into the urban environment as a living organism, with its circulatory systems, tissue stratification, and matter metabolization, we start to understand why the generic urban patterns from the Modern period weren’t completely effective, demonstrating why a better relationship between natural and built environment needs to be the center of discussion for healthier cities. The Abu Dhabi Skins Experiment aims to take advantage of the outstanding cooling properties of water and photosynthesizing capacities of Spirulina Genus algae to create a modular urban-scale cooling system, mitigating the urban heat island effect by attacking its key point generators, low-albedo surfaces, anthropogenic heat, and air pollution.
Eight Pillars
Through this design proposal, we believe the memory of the past through traditional elements would be a catalytic substance for communities to direct or guide to the new culture. Eventually, it becomes a memorable experience for the communities. The starting point was a stepping stone on the river. We found it’s interesting to use it as a general fulfillment of functional needs. Each stone would be a platform, and it can be grouped together to form a continuous link bridge for people to cross the river. The final form has been completed with 8 pillars of structure with 8 platforms. All are combined and connected to form a contemporary bridge which also includes the park for communities to enjoy the scenery of the river.
Physx Social Distancing Plaza
Physx is the very first installation of its kind. It is the first model that allows people to move freely and safely across space. It makes it possible to have interaction through social distancing. The installation consists of a tight tend surface, made out of the elastic fiber, raised from the ground of about 50cm. Once a person steps on the membrane, this one absorbs the pressure, bending in a depression-like valley. The membrane stretches and reveals the inner fibers that are in different colors. Automatically a colored “safe zone” of 1,5m with different intensity is generated around the person, defining the distance that should be kept while interacting with the other people.
Aetheria Heights Plaza
Pieris Architects' design for Aetheria Heights’ Plaza, refers to the unique climatic conditions of the location and reinvents Mediterranean living based entirely on the use of natural resources and zero waste policies. Through the detailed design of the individual elements to the design of the plaza the architecture develops the eco-emotional intelligence of the users inducing them to adopt a more ecological & healthy use of public space.
HOW TO SUBMIT AN UNBUILT PROJECT
We highly appreciate the input from our readers and are always happy to see more projects designed by them. If you have an Unbuilt project to submit, click here and follow the guidelines. Our curators will review your submission and get back to you in case it is selected for a feature.
This article is part of the ArchDaily Topic: Green. Every month we explore a topic in-depth through articles, interviews, news, and projects. Learn more about our monthly topics. As always, at ArchDaily we welcome the contributions of our readers; if you want to submit an article or project, contact us.