IFLA Europe Exhibition 'Re-considering Nature' project

IFLA Europe Exhibition 'Re-considering Nature' project

AsoP Romania entitled “East Park"

After the successful first edition of IFLA Europe Exhibition Project 'Landsape as a common ground", we are delighted to present projects from the second edition entitled  "Reconsidering Nature". The Exhibition is a joint effort of our members - National Associations of landscape architect(ure) - who submitted their best landscape architecture projects and the 'Exhibition Project' Working Group led by our past Secretary General Urszula Forczek-Brataniec SAK Poland and members: Eva Jenikova, CAKA Czech Republic, Ana Levonmaa, MARK Finland, Almut Jirku, bdla Germany. The Exhibition project would not have been possible without the support team: Katarzyna Jamioł, Tomasz Jaróag, Natalia Nowak @Politechnika Krakowska and the graduating graphic design team: Marta Gotfryd, Natalia Kubiela, Filip Bruchnalski @Akademia Sztuk Pięknych im. Jana Matejki w Krakowie. 

The aim of the exhibition is to show the contemporary role of landscape architects in creating space together with nature. Its conventionally perceived task - to create and preserve beauty in the surrounding of human habitations - has expanded considerably. Environmental challenges, climate change and the living conditions of the inhabitants of larger and larger cities oblige us to take nature beyond the emphasis on aesthetic perspectives. In design, planning and management of landscapes, landscape architects face a contemporary challenge: thinking of nature as a subject, understanding its principles and respecting its needs.

IFLA Europe exhibition presents projects conceived and created in close connection with the nature. It includes large and small-scale implemented landscape architecture projects showing the forces of nature as well as exposing nature’s rights, role and importance. IFLA Europe exhibition presents an overview of realised landscape architecture projects from all over Europe which are implemented in harmony with the nature and using nature-based solutions. Implemented projects show work of landscape architects working either individually or in multidisciplinary teams. Realised projects promote environmental as well as aesthetic value. 

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Today we present a project from AsoP Romania entitled “East Park"

The starting point of the project was the mapping over time of the various habitats forming this fragile ecosystem (marsh, swamp, upland, wet meadow, dry meadows, riparian forest corridors along the river, tree clumps and tiny forests, all with their fauna), in order to reveal the real nature of each habitat.

In the next step, the goal is to allow nature to further take over the site. This is done by enriching the biodiversity of certain habitats within their boundaries, such as the localamplification of the water edge, or by creating new areas of expansion into large buffer zones between the biotope reserve and the most active parts of the park or the re-expansion of the Becas valley. These strategies take specific form in each spot, in accordance with the local topography, geology and biology.

The key to the success of the project is its appropriation by the inhabitants. A series of thematic circuits will raise awareness and allow for educational-recreational experiences for all types of public. While the protected areas are excluded from the circuits of the park, by doubling these zones with a similar natural buffer, the visitors can experience the richness of the wetland without having to reach the protected area.

Our design proposes different not static island environments linked in one park as a unifying landscape. These islands are bordered and regulated by water so these habitatswill balance themselves offering resilience and guaranteeing a good dynamic for the whole landscape ecosystem.

Authors: METAPOLIS Architects | Studio de peisaj ANA HORHAT | Atelier MASS

Photo Credit: Ana-Maria Horhat

Project and catalogue of IFLA Europe Exhibition Projects are available on IFLA Europe website https://iflaeurope.eu/index.php/site/exhibition-project