Murmansk, Central and Reserve park
We start this project by thinking the world from a different perspective, from a north perspective, where the potential of the strategic geolocation of Murmansk is revealed. From a global perspective Murmansk represents Russia’s direct connection with the Arctic Sea.Therefore, Murmansk is one Russia’s main port cities as it facilitates the trading and commercial activities with the countries and cities in the northern hemisphere.
Due to climate change, Murmansk role will tend to increase as the arctic ocean is becoming a new central stage for transportation. Murmansk is a city awakening, in a vertiginous process of revitalization and in that sense, in need of quality public space.
We conceived the proposal for the 23.38 ha park located at the morphological center of the city of Murmansk as an articulation of natural, urban and social networks where nature is at the center of the design concept. Particularly, after considering the strong presence of water and its endangerment by anthropogenic action, we choose this feature as the layout of the formal and zoning structure of the park as in general our proposal pretends to enhance and complement the existing nature.
As the response for the need of quality public space in Murmansk that compensate its uneven distribution in the city, where the special atmospheric phenomena of the region can be celebrated. As a strategical point of articulation of the natural networks in the city where the diversity offered by the polar landscape, its natural structures, morphology and successional dynamics are present and the conservation and enhancing of the water features is central. As an urban articulator that receives the fluxes but also reaches the important infrastructural facilities and nodes of activity in its proximity, promoting the positive growth of the city.
This is the reason why the proposal has the ability to mix different urban scales. Each space responds to three types of scale, local, zonal and urban, in three aspects: natural, programmatic and infrastructure. managing to maximize the mixture of people, environments, roads, improving the habitability and the urban relationship of the proposal with its surroundings.
