Students from two Voronezh universities presented concepts for improving city parks

The city competition “The Green City We Will Build” is approaching its finals. On April 24, mixed teams, including future urban planners, landscape designers and ecologists, defended their concepts for the development of six significant park areas.

The chairman of the competition jury was the deputy head of the city, Lyudmila Borodina.

– What we are doing now is very responsible: we are creating our future, in which we and our followers are destined to live. It is gratifying that two leading universities in Voronezh are taking part in the competition. You have been offered the opportunity to develop some of the most important public spaces. We are ready to entrust them to your mind, talent and wonderful hands. I am sure that your ideas will please us, and we will be able to recommend them in the future for the improvement of our beloved city,” Borodina greeted the teams of competitors and wished them success.

The students got very different territories – those whose condition is maintained by city services, but still require improvement, and those that, alas, are in a neglected state and the Voronezh administration is looking for options on how to breathe a second life into them.

Pigeon Press and new life

Margarita Kravchuk’s team prepared for the defense most thoroughly: in addition to the project, they also developed a corporate style. The visual component – ​​both in clothes and, of course, in the project, became one of the girls’ features. By drawing lots they got the park. A. Durova in the Leninsky district of Voronezh.

– Durov Park is a historically rich area, it is the heart of the Leninsky district. In addition, the circus, with which the park is adjacent, will be reconstructed, so the planning and improvement of the area is more relevant than ever. If, with a new and beautiful circus, there is an unsightly space in the park, it will be dissonance,” said Margarita Kravchuk.

Currently, Durova Park cannot boast of the presence of modern architectural forms, active life with regular entertainment events, and, given the proximity to a road with heavy traffic, the territory is difficult to classify as a place of relaxation. The team proposes to zone the space differently, repair a fountain that has not been working for a long time, install new locations with sports activities and modern small architectural forms made of environmentally friendly materials with a soundproofing function.

The team plans to place the pigeon Zhima in the park, and each participant who finds him while completing quest tasks will receive souvenirs. The pigeon was named after the second name of the park – the Park of the Living and the Dead. Students also intend to preserve this page of history.

Another team got a park that was, as it itself described, in critical condition – the Brinkman Garden public garden in the Kominternovsky district. The competition participants, having conducted a survey of residents and assessed the increased load on the transport network in the area of ​​the park, established its increasing environmental role. They see this territory as an island of tranquility, while they intend to “perpetuate” the difficult fate of the square – a tree made from recycled materials will appear in it, as a symbol of revival and new life.

The development concept for the Brinkman Garden also involves the establishment of various facilities, including the arrangement of children’s and sports areas, a walking area and an area for walking dogs. In addition, since the square will become an island of calm, it is planned to add new types of trees and shrubs to its territory.

Students were also asked to develop projects for the Shkolny square in the Sovetsky district, the Yanvarsky square in the Zheleznodorozhny district, Koltsovsky boulevard in the Central district and the park named after. Sherstyuk in Levoberezhny.

– We propose the concept of uniting three generations, planning to make this place a recreation area for the whole family. And this idea is reflected in everything we do. The registry office is located next to the park, and the theme of family values ​​will also be heard,” Arina Kolesnikova, curator of the team for the development of the Yanvarsky square, commented on the idea.

Subtle nuances

According to the regulations, the teams first presented their projects to the jury and then answered questions. They affected not only the development of the territories themselves and the elaboration of ideas, but also unaccounted for points. In particular, the experts’ comments related to situations where teams, without examining the soil, proposed to plant flowers and trees that would not be able to take root in certain territories, as well as issues of ensuring safety in children’s playgrounds and organizing some kind of activities on lands located in someone else’s property.

However, the teams turned out to be prepared even for such complex and purely professional nuances, which are taken into account in their work by departments that are preparing to engage in landscaping not on paper, but in reality. Thus, when asked about unsuitable soil, the teams answered that in the modern world it has long been possible to replace the soil, and they know about the lands that are not under long-term lease, but no one is working on them – the territories are empty, so the project developers are ready to offer the tenant mutually beneficial cooperation. Moreover, the options voiced by the teams allow even in some perspective to achieve a commercial component and profit.

Deputy head of the city Lyudmila Borodina noted the high level of elaboration of the projects and praised the students for their work. According to her, it’s great when planners work “on the ground” and communicate with the public before doing anything. Participants in the “Green City We Will Build” competition conducted surveys of citizens and tried to take their wishes into account when developing concepts, since Voronezh residents will be the main visitors to green spaces.

The jury members also assessed the originality of the idea, architectural and artistic expressiveness, performance indicators of the designed object, aesthetics, environmental friendliness of the work and a number of other criteria. Based on the voting results, the winners of the competition will be determined; there will be three laureate projects in total. The date of the ceremonial summing up will be announced later.

The organizer of the city competition for parks and public gardens projects is the Voronezh Ecology Department.