urban design

PARK PARK is a room of parked curiosities designed to provoke a non-prescriptive rethink of the ubiquitous neighbourhood parking lot and the way we designate land use in our cities. We are all too familiar with the barren landscape formed by surface parking lots; they exist all across North America. In contrast, PARK PARK is designed as a layer cake of uses where single-use has long prevailed. This ‘parking lot park’ provides a colourful, vibrant collision of activities that takes on new meaning and provokes new conversations about the role of parking lots in urban neighbourhoods.

The Chaarani stairs are a UN-Habitat-funded public space project located in Qobbe, a low-income neighbourhood in Tripoli, Lebanon. Designed by EVA Studio and implemented by Solidarites International, the project consists of the rehabilitation of public stairs that run through the neighbourhood. These stairs are structurally vulnerable to flooding and other challenges, but are a key access as they connect this neighbourhood to Tripoli’s historic centre and the souks. The project takes on different challenges: from urban displacement and social integration between the host Lebanese community and Syrian refugees (who in this neighbourhood make up approximately 15% of the population) to post-conflict recovery. Located in close proximity to recent clashes between residents of two neigbouring areas, Jabal Mohsen and Tabanneh, inter-communal tensions and sectarian lines are layered, sometimes spilling over across invisible lines.

To develop and improve something, especially by making it as good or successful as it was before. This project is the first stage of regeneration of an old path that links the towns of Sallent and Cabrianes following the course of the Llobregat River, in an environment of riverside forests and small orchards.

Herradura Uno is located in Naucalpan, Estado de Mexico, considered a conurbation of Mexico City. We were commissioned to design four houses of 400 square meters in an irregular shape 1,100 sq. m. site. The starting point was to generate the most permeable area possible throughout the site. So, the strategy was to minimize the plot area and solve the program in three levels including a basement. Two volumes, 22 by 12 meters extruded rectangles, were set along a composition axis that goes northwest-southeast, comprising two units each volume.

The work of Fernando Prats sustains itself in the landscape of Chile, both geographical and human, and the immersive energy of its extreme nature. The piece entitled “Her Vertical Retains Us” (Su Vertical nos Retiene) arises out of continuous observation of the Andes, the “Poem of Chile” (Poema de Chile) by Gabriel Mistral, and drawings from the 1875 Atlas of Physical Geography of the Republic of Chile, done by geologist Pedro José Amado Pissis.

The Dead Square Nygaardsplassen (“Nygaard Square”) was once the backyard of a city block in Fredrikstad, Norway, surrounded by quaint townhouses. Between the houses were spaces teaming with life; children playing, livestock, and meeting places for friendly neighbours. During the 1970s many of these houses were demolished to make way for four-storey office buildings and an underground car park with Nygaardsplassen established on top. The office buildings featured an intricate, post-modern architectural style including arcades towards the new square. In urban terms, Nygaardsplassen was not a success and later adopted the nickname “The Dead Square”. Shopping Centre Zoning A new planning regulation for the square was agreed in 2012, outlining plans for a 4-6 storey shopping centre.