Europan 2003
The Concept
Can we consider that the landscaping process is able to renew the acute questions of the urban project especialy when dealing with the suburban context ? According to this central question applied to this particular site, our proposal is supported by three conceptual ideas :
the frame
the great landscape.
the liberation of the groundv
The frame :
Established facts : The actual territory is surrounded by a diffused suburban tissue, separated from the young historical center by the railway barrier. This context is defined by its lack of cohesion and urban qualities. Process : Our conquest of this huge virgin territory relies upon a virtuel orthogonal frame extending the one of the city center. Although this process seems rigorous, it opens large possibilities for flexible adaptation to specific situations. Proposal : The squares of 15x15 m metamorphose the nature and change the regulation of the concerned site. They allow diverse programs and built or unbuilt typologies. The frame carries the stake of the unification of this pescara’s suburban area, as it has happened before at the birth of the city.
The great landscape :
Established facts : the existence of infrastructures (highways, railways), transports (cars, train, plane, boat) and of remarkable landscaping elements (mountains, Pescara river, the Adriatic sea) brings to this site the great landscape space-time refernece. The spreading out suburbs conduct to the loose of legibility of these landscapes.
Process : the reflexion on suburbain spaces has to integrate nowadays the dimension of great landscapes. Our proposal intends to renew the dialogue between the great scale and urban density by revealing existing potentialities.
Proposal : We propose to create on the entire area a new referent level folowing the curving profile of the freeway, by a strict reglementation applicable as well to buildings, as to vegetation and public accessories.
The liberation of the ground :
Established facts : Even if the proximity of existing infrastructures gives the site the potentialities to drain all possible flows, such heavy works would disturb its natural balance. Process : As we take advantage of all car transportation qualities with- out undergoing its nuisances, our prposal.minimizes the presence of the cars, creates a new balance with nature and measures the territory in its specific space-time metric system. Proposal : The carparks punctuate the site along the freeway and create a programmatic link between up and down and the btwo banks of the river.All of those carparks can become a heart of a new district. Each point of the site is not further than a 7,5 minutes walk from one of them. Thus, by preserving the green feeling of this site and according to situations, the site reveals as well its densification capacity as the possibilities for great open air areas.
en association avec Jakub Jakubik et Arnaud Sachet.