National park: The Latest Architecture and News

Established in 2023 to protect nearly 13,000 hectares of the Vjosa River Region Park, the Vjosa National Park Europe’s first “wild river national park.” Danish architecture CEBRA has been selected to design a multifunctional visitor center and information center in the newly protected space. Located in Përmet, Tepelenë, and Vlorë in Southern Albania, the Vjosa Wild River National Park features a 190-kilometer-long free-flower river. CEBRA’s design supports conservation efforts and investigates how visitors can engage with their respective ecosystems.

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Following an international competition, Kengo Kuma & Associates has been selected to design the new visitor center for Butrint National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Albania’s Ionian coastline. Through its placement in a nodal and strategic position, the project aims to establish a new connection between the local communities and the expected archeological site visitors, thus improving the accessibility of the site, which is recognized as one of Albania’s chef cultural attractions. The visitor center, developed with Albanian partners CHwB Albania, is scheduled to open to the public in 2025.

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The Butrint Management Foundation (BMF) has revealed the four teams that will design the new visitor center for Butrint National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site on Albania’s Ionian coastline. Kengo Kuma & Associates, Lahdelma & Mahlamäki Architects, Philippe PROST / AAPP, and William Matthews Associates were selected to create concept designs for the 1,000m² visitor hub at the country’s most iconic cultural destination, home to artifacts and structures dating from the Iron Age up until the Middle Ages. The proposals will be judged in 2023, and the new visitor center is due to completion in 2025.

Powerhouse Company, in collaboration with landscape architecture office DELVA, has unveiled the design for a new visitor center for the Koekamp, which will play an essential role as a gateway to the new Hollandse Duinen national park. This intervention will open part of Koekamp, a green expanse near The Hague’s Central Station, to the public. The visitor center, commissioned by the Dutch forestry commission, is expected to be completed in 2024.

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Presidio Tunnel Tops is San Francisco’s upcoming national park destination, set to welcome visitors starting July 17th. The project reconnects the park formerly split in two by the Doyle Drive by creating new landscaped land over the highway now moved underground. Designed by James Corner Field Operations, the firm behind New York’s High Line, the project brings 5.6 hectares (14 acres) of new parkland to the Bay Area, featuring trails, picnic areas, and scenic views over the city as well as a nature play area for kids.

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