OCA Architects in collaboration with Eric Moya+Miquel Pérez
Coziness Valley Public Park Area Development Project, Murmansk, Russia. International architecture and urban design competition for the construction of the largest urban park in the Arctic Circle.
The students Eric Moya and Miquel Pérez in collaboration with the OCA Arquitectos team, Hernan Lleida, Bernardo García, Rocío Siesto and Robert Youssef.
Arctic Circle’s strategic location defines an unprecedented opportunity to endow the Russian capital of fisheries with a deeply needed new public space. Taking a critical role in the relationship between the two main settlements of the city in the north-south guideline that is currently only and precariously connected by a highway, the peculiarity of the site requires the ability to provide at the same time another connection, a green corridor which will link the Kola Bay area and Coziness Valley, the area’s natural park, from east to west.
In an effort to materialize the palimpsest that defines the place, the composition of the plant is inspired by the traces organically traced by the passage of citizens in the current space and throughout the years, the paths of free will that have left their marks. in the green landscape. Thus, Arctic Circle is defined as an exercise in reading the landscape, activating itself through design to consolidate a new door for the city of Murmansk. A new place that will give refuge to citizens to escape from their daily routines, to actively enjoy the environment and connect with the surrounding landscape.
A new attraction rooted in the historical language of the city, through the definition of new landmarks that are related with great care to the natural environment, implanting itself on tiptoe in the landscape, building urban and natural space simultaneously, giving rise to public space reference for the future of the city.
The missing link in the urban fabric of the city thus becomes a new source of energy, a new node of connection, leisure, interrelation and encounter for citizens, a new extension for the landscape, which is thus organically integrated into the city.
Authors: Eric Moya+Miquel Pérez.
Location: Murmansk, Rusia.
Colaboration with: OCA Architects
Year: 2020