Turenscape is Shortlisted in the Competition for the Concept of Zaryadye Park

 

 

“Project Russia” magazine in cooperation with the Strelka Institute and Wowhaus bureau are drafting the issue dedicated to organization of modern urban green spaces. In the course of this work we held discussions with representatives of the six teams selected to participate in the competition for Zaryadye Park. The issue will be published only in September, but we present to you the discussion now because of great interest in the topic.

 

Discussion participants:

 

Martin Bevenga, partner of WEST 8 bureau (Netherlands)

 

Daniel Dendra, Architect, head of anOther Architect bureau (Germany), member of the Turenscape consortium;

 

Mary Margaret Jones, landscape architect, managing partner of Hargreaves Associates (США), member of Diller Scofidio + Renfro consortium;

 

Kongjian Yu, landscape architect, president of Turenscape company (China);

 

Anton Nadtochy, architect, head of Atrium bureau, member of MVRDV consortium (Netherlands);

 

Vladimir Plotkin, architect, head of TPO Reserve;

 

Neil Porter, architect, partner of Gustafson Porter (Great Britain);

 

David Chacon, chief architect of Diller Scofidio + Renfro (USA);

 

Luisa Hutton, architect, partner of Sauerbruch bureau (Germany), member of Gustafson Porter consortium;

 

Moderator - Alexey Muratov, editor in chief of the "Project Russia" magazine

 

Alexey Muratov I would like to start with Vladimir Plotkin, the only Russian leader of the consortium selected to participate in the competition for Zaryadye Park. My question to Vladimir will be the following. At different times, different things are in the spotlight for garden and park creators. In the Baroque era those were all kinds of theatrical effects and visual appeal; during French classicism - axial constructing and regularity; wildlife prevailed in the XIX century; finally, in the twentieth century - architecture. What in your opinion is the most important in modern parks? What are the parks we can truly consider modern?

 

Vladimir Plotkin Good question, thank you for having to answer it first.

 

Alexey Muratov But after all, TPO "Reserve" has received most votes of the jury!

 

Vladimir Plotkin Parks can actually be absolutely different in the XXI century. They can be designed in the spirit of the Baroque or in the spirit of a XX century park. It all depends on the purpose and the site. The goal that the organizers of the competition set for us is to create something unique in Zaryadye. Different sectors of society and different addressees of the project expect different things, and I do not know yet how to respond. Conservative groups want from us a respectful, perhaps even reverential attitude towards this historic place. At the same time we live in the XXI century, and Moscow is an ultramodern city. Therefore, some people expect from us progressive and innovative solutions, including the ones that refer to environmental issues and sustainable development. If we find a balance between these two approaches, the project is bound to succeed. However, in any case the one who comes up with the most compelling story for this place will be the one to win.

 

Kongjian Yu Parks have always been havens where you can escape from the city. You mentioned a baroque park. It was a refuge for the Kings who fled from the metropolitan bustle. But what is the park of the XXI century anyway? To answer this question we need to understand the kind of problems we are dealing with. For now, it is the problem of climate change, pollution, noise, superintensive road traffic. Our project must offer solutions to these problems. Park is not a consumer. Earlier in history, during the time of Louis XIV, park consumed energy, materials and labor. Today the park itself becomes a producer. For example, it produces clean water and food. It is a place where people become familiar with their history, which constitutes cultural and spiritual functions of the park. Nevertheless, its most important task is to revitalize the urban environment. When this happens, a truly modern park is created.

 

Neil Porter It is very difficult to talk about modern parks in the optics of various styles. In my opinion, they are all out of date. Of course, in a Baroque park or a park of classic period one can gather a lot of techniques and knowledge. Nowadays, however, a more complex and, I would say, infrastructure approach is in demand. With great interest I studied the map of Moscow and its green spaces. Evidently, the new park could become a part of the extended system of natural areas, which is just beginning to form.

 

Anton Nadtochy At all times, parks, as well as architecture, reflect a certain view of the world. A modern park is most likely intended to reflect modern concept of the universe. Amid prevailing entropy, fragmentation of society and systems of human values, I believe it must be the concept of a complex, chaotic world. It should take into account, of course, specifics of the site - the fact that here we are creating a park in the very center of the city.

 

 

 

David Chacon It would be too simplistic to regard the park only as something natural and pastoral, as stylized in a traditional manner space, the only purpose of which is to be a resting place. It is surely important, but at the same time it is necessary to take into account one more thing. Parks provoke a different vision of the world. Parks give an opportunity not only to relax but also to learn about the environment, local nature and the urban space. Parks change from season to season, and these changes inspire people. It must also be considered.

 

Martin Bevenga There is no clear answer to that question. The only thing I can say is that parks always reflect the culture of the city, no matter what you do with them. Yesterday we visited Gorky Park, and the way it develops presents a very interesting picture. At the moment, as I see it, we can observe an attempt to revive the park, saturate it with new energy by creating different temporary pavilions and other elements of the urban environment. It looks cheap and small-town, everything it touched by trace of experiment.

 

Alexey Muratov I again return to Vladimir Plotkin, as he will need to leave us soon. Vladimir, you were talking about public taste, “the old" and " the new", the "the progressives" and "the conservatives". Where do you get information about what society wants? As far as I understand, general public is excluded from the process of decision-making and the contestants communicate only with experts. In your opinion, is this correct?

 

Vladimir Plotkin It is much easier for Moscow participants of the competition in this respect. We live in this information field and we can feel it well. Every day we watch TV, surf the internet, Facebook. We hear and read about all the hopes and aspirations of our people for this place. The level of interest to it goes off scale. On the one hand, it is understandable. On the other - there are many other newsworthy occasions in our country…

 

Alexey Muratov The question is - who is the customer? Who are you working for on this project?

 

Vladimir Plotkin I understand that you provoke me to a quite clear and expected response. But I will answer differently. We do not work for the authorities or for the state. Our client is, as loud as it sounds, the people, the Muscovites, taxpayers who actually pay for this order. And we must try to meet their aspirations.

 

Kongjian Yu Of course, our customer is the people. But at the same time we have our professional competence. We are the experts. We cannot be guided only by wishes of the people. We should rely on information and knowledge. We need to think further than daily use of the park. It is not only a resting place for the people, it also strengthens environmental sustainability of urban space and its cultural identity. We have to take into account ecological issues and historical importance of the site, those things that interest only few. Maybe people want a swimming pool here. But is this the right spot for one?

 

 

David Chacon We work for a wide range of people. The answer may seem stereotypical, but it is a child in the street as well a businessman going to lunch. It is an art lover and a thinker who wants to sit in silence. It is as well a man who goes to the park for a concert.

 

Alexey Muratov In short, are we talking about consumers of various services?

 

David Chacon Yes, you can put it like that as well.

 

Neil Porter There are several levels of information which are important for a landscape architect. It is my second visit to Russia, the first one was thirty years ago. Many things have changed. We love it here. It was great to spend a whole day in Gorky Park, to observe how people get used to the landscape and what causes their emotional response. We gradually digest the information now. This, in addition to information from official sources, helps us to understand how important it is to Muscovites to have one more park. Zaryadye remained closed for many years. After bringing the project to life people will again have access to it, and I'm sure they will love this place.

 

Alexey Muratov All in all, do you believe that the city really needs this park? This is a very interesting site, right next to the Kremlin. Maybe instead of creating a park something should be built here? What is the real need of a park in this highly precious part of the city?

 

Anton Nadtochy I think that many people found the Government's decision on the establishment of the park in this area to be a surprise. Over the past decades, Moscow has in fact been losing public spaces. Many of the buildings were passed into private ownership, they were surrounded by fences, former public spaces became inaccessible to passersby. In my view, the Government's commitment to return public spaces to the city is is very important.

 

Alexey Muratov But why lay out one large park instead a lot of small ones like in London?

 

Anton Nadtochy One more point should be considered: the change of our attitude to heritage recreation. While previously in place of a lost historical monument a modern replica could easily build, now we are in the process of revising the concept. We cannot simply restore a building of the beginning of the XIX century. In that case it’s not quite clear what to do with the territory. If we build a shopping mall, the public will not favor it. Therefore, creating park in many ways seems to be a good solution.

 

Martin Bevenga If you look at the map, you will see that there are quite a lot of green spaces in this area, so it seems like there is no urgent need in a park here. Nevertheless, if you go to the site, you will see that everything is just all overgrown with grass. There is no thoughtful landscape. The park will pursue the goal of becoming a place in the heart of the city where people can come to rest. It is a perfectly legitimate reason.

 

Kongjian Yu I believe that a more important question is in the reason of creating a modern park in this location. You have enough parks established in the 1950’s. There are many parks in Moscow; the thing is that they all are quite old. Thus, this spot is intended to be a new, modern park.

 

Daniel Dendra I recall summer of 2010, that summer when forests were burning around Moscow and temperature kept to be around forty degrees for nearly a month... It is forecasted that due to global warming the summer season in the next few decades will become more and more extreme. We need to understand that it is necessary to get ready for it and to take such actions that will help to survive in the city in the future. Especially this regards the city center, where we can observe the effect of "heat island" when the temperature is two degrees higher than in the outskirts. Two degrees actually is a lot. During summer 2003, 40,000 inhabitants of European cities died from extreme heat. Parisians are particularly affected because there are few green spaces in Paris. In this sense Zaryadye is a strategically important project. In fact, the park is located by the river, which is a great channel of natural ventilation - cool fresh air of the park can easily spread around the area. Little green corners do not give such an effect. At least because of this, the creation of a large park in Zaryadye is extremely important.

 

Alexey Muratov Historically, creation of parks was connected with the process of human emancipation, initially inherent only to a narrow dominant social class, and then the mass inhabitant of the urban environment. In modern times, does the improvement of parks cause a splash of, so to speak, "lower" creativity or political activity? In your opinion, is the latest world Occupy movement connected with the process of improvement of the urban environment?

 

Luisa Hutton I’d like to give an example of Iran, where we have been to seven years ago. Do not look for any hidden meaning or some kind of parallels in it. To my mind, there are no public spaces at all there: free communication occurs only when people meet in the gardens. Teenagers celebrate birthdays and kiss in the trees there. I also witnessed a very interesting situation regarding the bridges. We saw the most beautiful bridges in Isfahan as well as other cities. Once, all of a sudden, a group of well-dressed men spontaneously would gather into groups. Suddenly one of them would begin to recite a poem or sing a song. Of course, the police then quickly appeared, and everyone was asked to disperse. But it seemed to me that this is a very beautiful story, when freedom arises in places related to nature.

 

Alexey Muratov How commercially saturated must be the program of the park? Should landscape architects, like in the famous book by Robert Venturi, learn from Disneyland? And if so, what lessons they could take out from there? Martin Bevenga Never been to Disneyland. Although I know that this park has a brilliant commercial concept. But when it comes to a city park, it's actually a space without any special program, at least most parks are like that. In recent years, however, the idea arose that parks need to have a program and that people there should be all the time involved in some sort of activity. This actually is the effect of Disneyland. In fact, if there is a place to buy ice cream in the park, that is enough for the majority of families who go there. There is no need for some hardcore program.

 

Alexey Muratov But then the question is - how the park will be financed? Does it mean that all the expenses fall on the city budget?

 

Neil Porter The question of how to attract citizens to parks, what benefits architects or landscape designers can bring to the city except from well-lit alleys and lawns for sport facilities, arose for the first time at the turn of 1980-1990's. And I must say that in recent years some parks have been created where entertainment and leisure are offered in a fairly light, elegant form, not as intrusively as in Disneyland.

 

 

Mary Margaret Jones All in all, parks are much more valuable than the cash flow. And this value lies in the fact that green spaces increase self-esteem of citizens, people want to live in an area where there is a park. The economic component of parks is not only the money that you can earn by selling ice-cream or renting pavilions, but also in improving the quality of life of the area where it is located. This is important, for example, for companies which want their employees to work in a pleasant environment. Thus, everything is not so straightforward in terms of economy.

 

Daniel Dendra I agree with previous remark. Parks have intangible value for people and cannot be translated into numbers. But let us return to the question of who should pay for the maintenance of the park. We were once working on a project, and there was a situation when every year the city spent a quarter million euros just to dispose rainwater. It is a problem for every city, because the weather is, I repeat, becoming more and more extreme, and rainfall is beyond all the norms. For example, in Moscow, if the rain comes – it pours heavily. Just imagine the Red Square, a huge paved rainproof area. And this water is not even so clean. While utilization is very expensive, a park is able to absorb and clean all this water, and the city can save on wastewater treatment facilities.

 

Alexey Muratov I’d like to ask a general question. Judging from the books, at least from those published in our country, the art of arrangement of gardens and parks in the twentieth century reached quite modest results. Having acquired significant proportions, in terms of artistry and cultural value landscape architecture of the twentieth century is far behind the times Le Nôtre, William Kent, Frederick Law Olmsted... This is largely attributed to the fact that arrangement of green spaces has lost its own worthiness, becoming a sort of appendage of architecture and urban planning. It is also symptomatic that the turn in the creative rethinking of urban landscapes and the beginning of a new "park revolution" in the West are, once again, often associated with the architects. Namely, with the competition for the Paris Parc de la Villette design of 1982-1983 and with the names of Rem Koolhaas and Bernard Tschumi.. In this regard, two questions arise. First, is our understanding of landscape design in the past century a correct one? And second, who should play a leading part in the creation of the park - an architect, an urban planner or a landscape designer?

 

Neil Porter You know, I actually took part in this competition for the Parc de la Villette, worked with Tschumi’s team. It was a lot of fun, I pasted the architectural models and made drawings: had just graduated from the Architectural Association School. It was an amazing time. But I still think that there were a lot of good things in the XX century – thus, in many cities park infrastructure appeared. So, we probably cannot say that the past century has been lost and we managed to turn to a right path not until the end of the century. It was an evolution going on. Koolhaas and Tschumi really hit upon a new direction, but what they did had been prepared by prior history of creating parks. For example, in the post-war Amsterdam there was a terrific environmental movement: in a very densely built city "green fingers" were stretched. It anticipated the dream of every modern city. In Detroit, too, there were established several amazing park projects. Interesting findings in this area have actually occurred; they just need to be searched for. As for the question of the dominant role of the project, I believe that we should erase the boundaries between disciplines.

 

Mary Margaret Jones I have an addition on the history of landscape design of the XX century. I truly believe that this movement got somehow lost, especially by the 1970’s. Buildings’ construction was considered of more than the establishment of places. Also, the most important thing which happened in the course of the the Parc de la Villette project was a return of the value of that place. But that project was, so to say, just a baby step. This was only the beginning of getting away from the old way of thinking, according to which landscape design obediently followed the topography of the terrain and the pattern that construction created. If we talk about who is to lead projects of parks’ creation, then my answer is – the one who is better at it. However, it must be noted that landscape architects, unlike their colleagues who specialize in buildings and structures, acquire a certain amount of scientific knowledge about the environment during their education. And when, for example, you are listening to Dr. Kongjian Yu, it is important to understand the science. In general, cooperation is, of course, the best way to go.