One of the central responsibilities of urban planners and designers is to create places within the city for gatherings, demonstrations, leisure, and relaxation. The following list of unbuilt public spaces presents projects that expand these spaces beyond the shores or riverfronts, return misused spaces back to the local communities and seek to optimize otherwise overlooked areas. These types of interventions are essential in improving the quality of life of the citizens and in making cities more enjoyable to live in.
This week's curated selection of Best Unbuilt Architecture highlights projects submitted by the ArchDaily community. Located near a UNESCO heritage site in Italy, on top of an illegal dumping site in Dallas, Texas, or in a medieval city in northern Spain, this round-up of unbuilt projects showcases how architects and urban planners recognize the potential of urban places.
Read on to discover 10 curated projects of public spaces, along with their project descriptions from the architects.
Biking Among Treetops
CRA and non-profit organization GAL unveil The Tree Path, an elevated route for pedestrians and cyclists supported by more than a thousand trees. The sensor-augmented pathway leads to Sabbioneta, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in northern Italy, and was developed in close collaboration with OLA, the leading experts in a construction technique that employs trees as architectural and structural elements.
Tying the Knot - Atlanta Legacy Makers
To honor the work of looking backward and walking forward, our competition entry Tying the Knot, intertwines two historically and culturally significant roads. We look back to the work of Atlanta's Mayors Ivan Allen Jr. and Maynard Jackson, who pulled together the Peachtree Street and Sweet Auburn communities. We walk forward toward the potential created by this monument as a flexible piece of infrastructure: the proposal offers pocket parks, event support, and houses a living-accessible-audio-archive of the Atlanta community.
Floral Farms Park
A vision born through a robust and iterative community engagement process with the neighbors of Floral Farms, Floral Farms Park seeks to right the environmental injustice brought upon the community by Shingle Mountain, an illegal shingle dumping site that became infamous in Dallas when it grew over six stories high. Floral Farms park reclaims the identity of the neighborhood of Floral Farms as a vibrant and diverse community, and creates a space for neighbors to relax, reflect, and heal.
Pavilion (Look, Feel, Experience It)
At this pavilion, people are invited to transform from submissive spectators to actors and begin a new journey experience. By passing through the ropes, symbolic interpretation of the flow of movement, the background will be both visible and hiding from the beholder's eye, and the mind will be prepared to discover and connect with the environment. The collision of wooden orbs also causes the interference of the sounds and activates the senses of passers-by.
The Ripple @ Maribor
The ripple is a floating multifunctional piazza that adds a new landmark that celebrates the Drava River and the beautiful city of Maribor. Our scheme's form comes from the 3-dimensional representation of its namesake, a ripple, extruded and tiered to create an amphitheater around a central open space. The cascading rods on either side act as windbreakers while providing the opportunity to frame the river view and also the opportunity to carry a fabric covering to provide shelter on rainy days.
Sage - Space for Healing
Isturaín + Sam won the international competition "Hastahana- - Public space for "all" organized by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) in Bosnia & Herzegovina, together with the Municipality of Centar Sarajevo. The two-phase competition received 79 proposals. Then the jury selected three finalists to be submitted to the public vote of the citizens of Sarajevo. A total of 977 votes were received, of which the proposal "Sage-Space for Healing" obtained 497 (51%), resulting in it being the winning proposal chosen by the citizens.
The Lindworm Festival
Svenja Siever
This project examines the technical abilities of large-span glulam structures and their integration as part of a continuous structure in Munich, Germany. Wood performs best along the grain, making bending timber more resource-efficient, durable, and structurally effective than cutting it. The overall spatial definition is investigated by categorizing abstract spatial sequence iterations with the help of SubD. In addition, Live Physics engines are used to create shell structures from hanging models to optimize enclosing roof structures.
An Urban Re-typology
"Dense-city: An Urban Re-typology" presents an urban strategy that repurposes the role of traffic intersections, which are ubiquitous physical infrastructures in every city. In this project, we rearrange the priority between transportation and people and rethink the "public space" notion in dense cities.
The Flying Manta Ray
Amir Mohammad Sabahi Moosavi
The unknown soldiers' monuments, a recognition of their efforts, are considered a well-known and commendable act worldwide. This creation is unique, not only as a part of history but also, it is seen as a preservation of values and continuing an ideology. The central concept for this project was inspired by a droplet of water that makes circular motions. Also, the outer skin is like a manta ray floating in the water like a bird flying in the sky.
Project Canti-Leaf
Nesta Architectural Studio
Project Canti-Leaf is a curvilinear structure serving as a porticoed vestibule in the vast bamboo forest of the Thanh Tam Ecopark in the Thanh Hoa Province of Vietnam. It takes the shape of the surrounding structures and buildings, and with respect to where it takes its place in nature, biomimicry gives the pavilion its final form. It allows it to function as a temporary shelter for the park's visitors passing from one side of the forestry to the next.
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.
