Ecosistema urbano

Temporary urban extension in a former landfill . Maribor

photos: holcimfoundation

The area in the district of Pobrezje [Maribor] is occupied by the municipal landfill, presently in a phase of renaturalization and ecological rehabilitation, a process that will take an unknown amount of time. We took this temporary circumstance as a leit motif of the project, understanding that the temporary processes are highly related to the architecture. A new landscape is built artificially, above the existing flat land, a temporary landscape, that creates a new level where it is possible to construct light structures. This new topography forms spaces or rings of distinct sizes where the perimeter is integrated with different buildings
in continuity with the new landscape, diluting the limits between the natural and the artificial.

The site. Soft urbanism ©(
The city of Maribor, counts with more than 70% of green or natural © surface (green, agricultural, and forest áreas). We propose a soft urbanism, able to blend landscape design, housing and facilities, with open air public green áreas, all of it surrounded by a high quality landscape perception.
The site in the Pobrezje district [Maribor] is featured by the municipal waste damping área, currently ¡n the phase of ecological re-naturalisation and rehabilitation, which will take several years to be Consolidated. We take this temporary feature as the project's leit motif, since temporary processes are very close to architecture. We understand architecture as a reversible process, that due to its slowness, requires capacity of anticipation and the use of a strategic thought, including the time dimensión as a necessary project material. We think that the architectural project is a plan to manage the built object's life, so we are interested in architecture which is projected for construction and also for dismantling.
We occupy the site for a short period of time. For this, a temporary landscape is artificially built on the fíat land, creating a new building level (+2,50m) on which it is possible to build temporary structures. This new topography generates different size enclosures or rings, on which perimeters different buildings are built. These rings contain open air green áreas, sometimes dedicated io communal spaces linked to the residential dwellings, and others creating multipurpose venues of bigger size, ready to accommodate different public programmes (fairs, concerts, sport facilities, etc), linked to public services buildings.