A green relaxation zone will be created in the center of Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski. The city park there will gain a space where peace and quiet will reign. The project, selected in a competition, was developed by a team from the Autorska Pracownia Architektury CAD.
The Marszałek Józef Piłsudski City Park is located in the center of Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski. Delimited between the Kamienna River and its left-bank tributary, the Mlynowka River, it forms a C-like shape and occupies an area of nearly 20 hectares. It was established in the interwar period according to the design of Franciszek Szanior, a Warsaw gardener who drew inspiration from English free and natural landscape parks.
The study area included only part of a large city park
© Autorska Pracownia Architektury CAD
Last year, the park was expanded by an area of 0.5 hectares, and the municipality sought an idea for its development through an implementation competition. The narrow and long section is located in the northeastern corner of the municipal park, adjacent to a pond on one side and private land on the other.
The result expected in the competition guidelines was to be an increase in quality and diversity, an increase in well-maintained and landscaped areas, and, as a result, an increase in the attractiveness of the park. The guidelines included, among other things, such issues as adaptation to climate change, the use of blue-green infrastructure, accessibility or the inclusion of teaching, recreational and cultural functions. The main protagonist of the transformed park, however, is to be rich and diverse greenery.
visualization overlooking the circles of silence and sound
© Autorska Pracownia Architektury CAD
The competition court, chaired by the city's vice-president Łukasz Norowski, and composed of: Jagoda Jaworska-Nowakowska, Piotr Mazik, Mariusz Kałuża, Beata Bednarek, Dariusz Staruch and Magdalena Pawlik-Kałuża, awarded the First Prize to Warsaw's Autorska Pracownia Architektury CAD, which has to its credit, among others, the detailed design of the Forest Park on Oksywie in Gdynia (the team from Kaja Pobereżny Design Studio was responsible for the conceptual design). This is also not the first project of the Warsaw team in Ostrowiec Swietokrzyski - earlier they realized here the Olympic swimming pool, the open swimming pool "Rawka", as well as the project for the reconstruction of the market. Second place was awarded to the Gdak Studio from Kielce. The results were announced on May 16 this year.
5 thousand square meters of relaxation
The architects set themselves the goal of renaturalizing the area next to the water reservoir, restoring natural habitats and increasing the park's biodiversity, enriching its offer for residents, as well as taking care of the area's high retention capacity.
The re-created section of the city park is intended to be primarily a place for strolling, a space for tranquility, relaxation, lazy recreation and intimate meetings rather than a venue for special events or demanding physical activities.
communication links
© Autorska Pracownia Architektury CAD
In the competition proposal, two intertwining paths were designated - a wooden footbridge, a section of which is routed over a nearby pond, and a mineral pedestrian and bicycle path, whose gravel surface is to help calm traffic (and at the same time properly eliminate transport with small wheels, such as scooters and rollerblades) - as pedestrian traffic is to dominate here.
visualization of the park
© Autorska Pracownia Architektury CAD
The park is used for walking and rest, understood as relaxation without making significant effort. The architecture, which is an intrusion into the natural environment, will be created by platforms, platforms, seats, information boards - structures needed by users to enjoy the natural environment. The basic motive of these elements is to dispense them sparingly in the space and construct them with wooden building blocks as the basic material. In doing so, it was assumed that the modern pedigree of these objects would be evidenced by their formal minimalism and natural materials
- explain the authors of the project.
The designed section includes, among other things, picnic glades with wooden tables and benches, rain gardens, a fruit grove, children's play areas and a dog park. The architects have also designed three wooden platforms - a viewing platform, a circle of silence (a space for meditation) and a circle of sound (a place for small concerts). The project includes new plantings, and there will be nesting boxes and hotels for insects
scheme of water relations and park furniture
© Autorska Pracownia Architektury CAD
What will be the next steps? Plans call for developing design documentation and obtaining the necessary approvals by the end of the year. The next step will be to seek sources of funding for implementation. The maximum planned total cost of carrying out the construction works should fit into the amount of two and a half million zlotys.
