ZARYADYE PARK BY TURENSCAPE

Rooted in the genius loci of Moscow and the site, the Zaryadye Park, a proposal by the Turenscape, is designed as an urban ecosystem that provides multiple eco-services to the city and people.

By overlaying the richness of site’s historical layers, the Park becomes a living puzzle that locks together the city’s memory, culture, ecology and people, which reveals the memory of the past and makes a prophecy for the future.

Zaryadye Park is a contemporary landscape with a new aesthetic based on environmental ethics: it offers high performance and requires low maintenance; it repairs the broken connections between man and nature. Its main feature – the Blue Circle is the perfect counterpoint to the Red Square.

Challenges of the site that the proposal needs to deal with are:

• Urban Ecology: storm water and snow melts from surrounding
• National Identity: an icon with representative, authentic, natural and cultural landscape
• Harsh Climate: cold winter and hot summer
• Recreation and Tourism: provides intimate spaces and also for activities in a crowd setting
• Heritage and history: existing buildings as open-air museum
• Site Connectivity: linking Red Square, waterfront, and context

In order to deal with the challenges we adopted a design strategy, which provides:

• A functional ecosystem that cleans and filtrates city’s storm water and snow melt and support native biodiversity
• A new icon of Moscow that represents an authentic natural and cultural landscape
• An oasis that regulates the harsh climate and urban environment and acts as a retreat to provide an intimate experience of nature
• A place that gathers people and stages different activities in all seasons and weather
• A public ‘balcony’ and open museum for the city which catches the best views of Moscow’s heritage skyline
• A uniting space that connects the surrounding urban fabric and the waterfront

Zaryadye Park – the Blue Circle of Moscow– is an integration of 4 layers. Firstly, it is a system of Designed Natures. It is composed of 5 major landscape elements that represent Russian vernacular landscapes – them being, the monastery gardens, meadow, constructed wetland, reflection pond and birch forest.

Secondly, the scheme brings to the fore the footprints remnants on the site. The design visualizes the imprints of the historical buildings and streetscape that lies underneath, and transforms these imprints into a functional wetland and ground pattern.

Thirdly, there are the Winter gardens. Service facilities including café, restaurant, and temporary exhibitions are contained in glass houses. Lastly, there is the Boardwalk and Skywalk system that are detached from the ground and that integrate seating with platforms and environmental interpretation system for people to experience the designed natures.

GREENHOUSE IN THE BOTANIC GARDEN BY C.F. MØLLER ARCHITECTS

The project includes a comprehensive restoration of the old hothouse in the Botanic Garden in Aarhus originally designed by C.F. Møller Architects.

In the restoration the palm house will become a new botanical knowledge centre, at the same time as the complex is extended with a new, 18 metres high tropical hothouse, in which the public can go exploring among the tree-tops.

The existing snail-shaped hothouse was well adapted to its surroundings, and it has been important to bear the existing architectural values in mind when designing the new one.

The new hothouse also uses the organic form, which is, at the same time, based on energy-conserving design solutions and on a knowledge of materials, indoor climate and technology.

Advanced calculations have ensured that form and energy consumption interact in the best possible manner.

The domed shape and the building's orientation in relation to the points of the compass have been chosen because this precise format gives the smallest surface area coupled with the largest volume, as well as the best possible sunlight incidence in winter, and the least possible in summer.

The support structure consists of 10 steel arches, which fan out around a longitudinal and a transverse axis, creating a net of rectangles of varying sizes.

FormTL planned and designed a cover for these arches made mainly of double-layered ETFE cushions, which are affixed with biaxially bent profiles due to their complex structure.

On the south-facing side, the cushions used were made with three layers, two of which were printed. Through changes in pressure, the relative positions of these printed foils can be adjusted.

This can reduce or increase, as desired, the translucence of the cushions, changing the light and heat input of the building.

Location: Aarhus, Denmark

Architects: C.F. Møller

Engineering: Søren Jensen Rådgivende Ingeniører

Landscape: C.F. Møller

Size: 3300 m2(1242 m2new tropical hothouse and 2071 m2 renovation and rebuild of existing hothouse

Year: 2009-2013

Competition: 1. prize in architectural competition. 2009

Client: The University of Aarhus by Danish University and Property Agency

I wasn't sure what caught my eye on Rocky Ford

I stopped, turned turned, and took a picture. There was something familiar, something that triggered memories.

Rocky Ford is a street in Edgewood Kirkwood (thanks to Anonymous for straitening me out. Edgewood's boundaries go from Moreland to Arizona and I-20 to La France). I presume it "forded" Sugar Creek to the south. Folks just live there. Drivers just look straight ahead.

You'll never see it on a tour unless you are touring with me.

The flare on the verge board caught my eye at 30 mph. When I looked closely, I found this massive architrave with details galore. The chipboard in the gable window didn't put me off at all.


It's a 1930(?) hip-roofed bungalow with a leafy minimal landscape and a double-wide next door. This could be anywhere in the south.



There's a very grand portico with a hint of Tudor-asian-classical-craftsman, painted out in white. The chimney is proud and handsome, the foundation is unfussy and sturdy. The porch pokes out and is recessed in. The steps are massive. The verticals of the chimney and columns, the diagonals of the roof and half-timbering look just right with the horizontals of siding, sill, and eave. The gable, the pointy hip roof, and chimney reach for the sky.


You could build this today, don't you think?

Rocky Ford is not historic, not high style, not designed, not planned, not gentrified, not balanced, not harmonious, not zoned into conformity, not messed with too much.

But it has rewards for architecture tourists. I'm glad I stopped.

House Crunched by Crane Today in Morningside

I was just lollygagging on my way home from CVS this afternoon. This just didn't look right. Thank goodness there were no injuries.

(Update on Crane Crunched House 2012-11-28 )

It was so quiet.


The neighbors had started gathering. It was right in front of us. It was so odd.


Eerie.


The next door neighbor said there was a BIG noise and she grabbed the kids.


The crane was reaching over the house removing a dangerous tree chunk by chuck.


The last chuck didn't cooperate, the chunk that broke the ridge's back.

It's supposed rain tonight.


Some knock on the door.


Boutte Tree has a great reputation in the neighborhood. I know they'll make this right.

DILLER SCOFIDIO + RENFRO WINS ZARYADYE PARK COMPETITION

The Winner of the Competition is the concept of the architectural bureau from the USA, Diller Scofidio+Renfro, coming in second and third place are TPO Reserve and MVRDV.

“The concept of the Zaryadye park is based on the principles of wild urbanism, where people and plants co-exist in the same area. Wild urbanism creates a clear system of interaction between nature and the city. People are not imposed on certain routes and plants can grow freely. Wild urbanism - is an opportunity to leave the city, and at the same time be closer to it.

Nature provides an unexpected contrast to the city, keeping the balance with culture. The territory of the park has four typical Russian landscape zones : tundra, steppe , forest and marsh. The zones are organized in terraces that descend from the upper to a lower level of the park from North-East to South -West.

They cross each other, layering on top of each other and enclose the main objects of the park. The use of sustainable technologies, such as temperature regulation, wind control and natural light simulation, will help creating an artificial microclimate in different parts of the park.

The concept of the park reflects the most striking features of the neighboring territories, allowing to combine the characteristic elements of historic buildings and pedestrian areas of Kitay-gorod with lush gardens of the Kremlin, thus creating a hybrid landscape and the connection between the city and nature.

As a result, the park growing out of its environment will be a unique center of attraction for the citizens of Moscow and guests from Russia and from around the world” Zaryadye park.