INTERSECTION
Gentrification of Krisjana Barona spot

TYPE: Competition
CLIENT: Municipality of Riga
COLLABORATORS: -
SIZE:: 2700 m2
LOCATION: Riga, Latvia
YEAR: 2016
STATUS: Idea
PARTNERS IN CHARGE: Alisher Sadykov
PROJECT LEADER: -
PROJECT ARCHITECT: Alisher Sadykov
TEAM: Sana Vong, Thomas Christofferson, Kristaps Eichler, Inga Lace

DESCRIPTION:

Considering the large amount of schools and children care facilities on the intersection of Krisjana Barona and Erglu street, there was a task to design a safe and light place to meet, talk and come together.
Taking in to account the heavy traffic, and lack of any urban furniture and signs which would hint the drivers about the spot where they should pay high attention, we propose to “touch” the existing poor shape square in front of the main entrance of sport center “Sporta Nams”… It was proposed to connect all the perimeter, together with the part of main road using new modern geometrical pavement, avoiding any fences, borders, level differences and crosswalks, therefore visually uniting the whole area in to one mental shelter, bringing the “!!!” effect. To conduct light in to it, we designed friendly minimalistic tubular lamps and also supplemented spatial composition with new planted bushes and trees. The last but the main touch was the wide continuous bench forming a smaller “conversation” square in the bigger “walking” area.
To fully activate it, we suggested to use abandoned spaces of ground floors of the surrounding buildings for coffee shops, bakeries, and giftshops.