Urban design is increasingly striving for more inclusive, sustainable environments, bringing together various groups and activities, and fostering social interaction. This week's curated selection of the Best Unbuilt Architecture focuses on urban designs, large-scale urban development projects and masterplans submitted by the ArchDaily Community, showcasing how architects around the world work with and shape the urban fabric of highly diverse environments.
From the transformation of a brownfield into a lively neighbourhood in the Czech Republic to the redevelopment of Bergamo's city centre around new spatial and collective values, the following projects showcase the ideas shaping urban design, from functional diversity and notions of proximity to a focus on outdoor spaces. The common denominators of the following projects are their collective focus and the strong connection with the existing urban fabric.
Read on to discover 10 curated projects shaping the urban environment, along with their project descriptions from the architects.
Transformation of the brownfield area in Náchod city
LETO Architects (Pavel Kultyshev, Dmitrii Prikhodko)
With a rich history closely linked to the weaving industry, the city of Náchod is now in need of a new identity that takes its historical and social context into account. A new momentum for the city's development may lie in the creation of a model of a compact city with a range of options for work, recreation and living. Furthermore, the construction of a socially and economically sustainable ecosystem may attract new residents and promote the harmonious development of the city. Thus, the new Tepna is likely to become the second heart of the city of Náchod.
Chorus Life
JDP Joseph Di Pasquale Architects
Conceived as "The City of Behaviors", Chorus Life is an integrated urban campus designed by Italian architect Joseph Di Pasquale to regenerate an urban plot of about 150,000 square meters and restore the social fabric of the district.JDP Architects' futuristic model aims to overcome the Functionalist City paradigm based on the binomial functional zoning-transport systems, to integrate different functions and generations, and to favour socialization as the main foundation of sustainability. The project will be finished by 2022.
Park Tech
Architecture firm Society Particular (SO-PA) designed a new high-tech office and commercial centre in Beijing that has just been approved for the urban permit. Being one of the largest developments of Beijing in recent years, the wedge-shaped site with high GFA proposed a seemingly inevitable outcome of another high-rise urban cluster. In opposition to a gimmicky landmark, our solution is a light and airy 300-meter long complex, blurring the boundary between the landscape and cityscape.
Entdeckt! Unmaking Backnang
Mai Hung Trung / atelier M32 and BASE
The Moorpark as an adaptable living space for everyone. The city as a park! Backnang West is more than a former industrial area on the river; it is a flood plain formed by the Murr. Our suggestion is to trust this existing geography and take it seriously as a holistic park. That means thinking of the city quarter in terms of its landscape and its topography. More than a finished quarter, we present an intervention strategy for sustainable and changeable living space—a development process in four acts and three fundamental game rules.
The Cove
The Cove is a well-connected live-work-play supercluster. It is a global hub for life science, tech and medicine, offering an ecosystem for discovery that will become a destination for academic and commercial life science, tech and medical entities in New Jersey and the Greater New York Metropolitan Area. Designed to leverage reclamation, renewal, and resiliency, The Cove sits on a remediated brownfield. The site will be transformed from a polluted industrial waterfront into a thriving public asset.
Manox
Manox is a residential-led transformation of a former factory site in Manchester. Of the 410 homes created, the majority will be family houses, with some apartment buildings at key locations within the masterplan. The scheme will be low-carbon and energy-efficient with ecological enhancement across every millimetre of the site, water- and energy-efficient homes and maximized use of sustainably sourced materials and minimized waste. In addition, the project will spur further rejuvenation of the area with an overarching emphasis on community-centred family housing and placemaking.
The Development Vision Fellenoord / Internationale Knoop XL
KCAP designs the masterplan to transform the mono-functional northern part of Eindhoven's station precinct into a future-proof, lively, and mixed urban district. The transformation aims to create an attractive environment for 6500-7500 new homes and an innovation district for companies in the technology, design and knowledge sectors. Buildings will have lively plinths for business functions and public programmes. In addition, high-quality green public spaces will provide interaction environments for the various user groups.
Palimpsest
The project is situated in Karaj, an independent city that reads as an annexation to Tehran, the capital; an annexation with a population growth rate higher than Tehran yet lacks a proportionate infrastructure development and facilities. Intersecting with the urban grid diagonally, Floating City expands by 1.5 kilometres and occupies an area of 200,000 square meters on the section of Tehran-Karaj highway that runs towards the city centre metro station.
New Town Quarter
International architecture practice 10 Design has led on a unique design concept for one of the largest redevelopment projects in Edinburgh's city centre, which will transform the former Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) site on Dundas Street into a contextual mixed-use development of the highest quality. The proposal will create a new urban centre, providing a significant addition to the public realm, and includes a hotel, office space and 350 homes.
Central Vista Redevelopment
The Redevelopment of Central Vista, New Delhi, is a historically and culturally significant project proposing the redevelopment of over 440 Hectares of prime land. Located in the heart of New Delhi, the capital of India, the design concepts are centred on restoration, adaptive re-use, intelligent conservation, upgradation, retrofitting and reconfiguration of the existing edifices to preserve the celebrated historical value of the area, along with the creation of some landmark edifices.
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.
