THE VYZVOLENNIA SQUARE. MARIUPOL
Team: Valeriia Polyanska, Taras Savka, Pavlo Bilyk, Anastasiia Gulevata
Loсation: Mariupol, Ukraine
Year: 2019
Year: 2019
THE VYZVOLENNIA SQUARE LANDSCAPING AND REVITALIZATION OF THE DASU BUILDING WITH ADJACENT TERRITORY MARIUPOL, UKRAINE
Mariupol is a city in a state of forced change. However, it has its own “face”, in which three main theses can be traced: “point of no return”, “outpost” and “border of the worlds”. Nowadays Mariupol coexists in the intense contrast of its defining spheres: war vs. tourism, industry vs. recreation. As the war is in the immediate vicinity, its threats keep this region in constant anxiety and fear. Heavy industry, criminogenicity and unappreciated historical heritage affect the overall image of the city and the site in particular.
The main idea of this project is the basic human need for security. This includes the sense of security provided by the openness, friendliness of the public spaces; human scaled and barrier-free design; and humanism of the project.
Our proposal can be described with the following approaches and actions:
Empting the site from both active (traffic) and passive (visible parking lots) car presence. Constructing dead ends of the streets and parking lots there. Roads leading to the site will be Mykolaivska Street and Kovalsky Lane. Public transportation will circulate on Torgova and Italiyska streets. Trolleybus will keep circulating on Mira avenue on a separate trolleybus path elevated up to the level of the sidewalk. Moving the road axis to the side of the avenue creates recreational space in front of the music college (16 Mira av.).
Transforming all dark and inaccessible spaces into lighted and well-visible.
Making the site visually irregular by using the principles of asymmetry in basic forms of the DASU building and the surrounding area. This should relax organized views and make the environment less resembling the "totalitarian" architecture.
Referring to human scale in the designing process: removing huge spaces covered with asphalt by dividing them into smaller zones and spaces instead. And also adding some attractiveness and individuality to the facades of the DASU building by implementing new division and rhythm.
Creating an inclusive public space accessible for people with limited mobility, by using smooth paving, ramps, elevators, tactile surfaces and sound signals.
Giving preference to environmentally friendly materials. We suggest:
to cover the facades of the building with facade slabs produced from waste of the production of corks for wine bottles, which does not need to be plastered and last for more than 50 years;
to install photobioreactors on the south facades, processing CO2 into oxygen 10 times more efficient than trees;
to cover part of the building with Kaynemaile mesh, made of high-quality engineering polycarbonate, which prevents the building from overheating. Also the material, resembling chain mail, supports aesthetically the leitmotif of security and protection and can be used as a background for video mapping during outdoor public events;
to use paving, produced of 70% recycled plastic waste;
to install a fountain, improving the microclimate in the warm season.
The main dominant of the site remains the DASU building. The avenue leads to its high-rise part and on this axis main open public space is situated. The space of second importance is an intersection of axes in the southern part of the square, point of the intersection becomes a place of the new monument - Monument of History of Mariupol - which is an improved version of the previous Cossacks monument.
The rest of the space is divided by secondary pathways. In between the pathways smaller public spaces with sitting places and trees with high crowns are organized. Spaces closer to the residential buildings, in the west, form quiet areas with more greenery. In the north an active recreation area is located: skate park and playground, a dry fountain with two canals, compositionally repeating the previously existing tram tracks, although now slightly offset from the DASU building.
Two public spaces framed by the wings of the building (to the north and to the south) are functionally connected to the closest blocks of the building: theatre and coworking space. The northern space is designed as a free open space with modular sitting places, which can be joined together in ourtood summer stage. On the south side, there is an outdoor area with tables for relaxing or working in nature.
As a part of a new mixed-use Mira avenue traffic organization we suggest construction of a bicycle lane connecting the city centre - Park Teatralny - to the west from the site and the site itself, heading up to the north. This can be a good beginning for creating bicycle infrastructure in the city which is one of its strategic goals. For this purpose on the territory of the site there are three places with bicycle parking lots.
The surrounding non-residential buildings from the south of the square can be completely transformed into art spaces, museums, tourist settlements. From the north, we suggest turning mono-enterprises with closed territories into more open ones for small and medium-sized businesses, and to transfer harmful productions outside the city. The first floors should be used for service functions.
The building of DASU is divided into several independent blocks according to the functions:
“Tower” block: an administration (levels 1 to 4), information media center and a research center (levels 6 to 8). As well as a restaurant (level 5) with an access to roof terraces of left and right wing of the building. Live music, tango or salsa dance floors, and summer movie screenings are available on the roof terraces. Rooftop of the “tower” has a viewpoint area from which you can see the historic city, the Sea of Azov, as well as the mega-enterprise “Azovstal”.
Left front wing: a music school for 160 students.
Right front wing: cafes with a common food court for 120 visitors (levels 0 and 1); art gallery centre (levels 2 to 4), with an access to the roof garden above central interconnecting block and both back wings.
Central interconnecting block: school of patriotic education and coworking.
Left back wing: a theater for 200 seats.
Right back wing: a driving school with 8 classes of 25 students.
