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Learning landscape – Zagreb Futurescapes
The LE:NOTRE Institute is glad to announce its fifth international student competition. The competition is organised in close relation to the Landscape Forum 2019 and will work with the same territorial context in Zagreb, Croatia.
The Forum 2019 will be hosted by the University of Zagreb, Faculty of Agriculture, Department of Ornamental Plants, Landscape Architecture and Garden Art, in Zagreb. The competition is open to students from any discipline. Interdisciplinary working teams are very welcome!
The river Sava at the western entrance to the urban landscape Zagreb, Croatia’s capital city. This peripheral landscape has high potential for green infrastructure approaches.
Competition Task
Competition participants will develop an integrated learning landscape concept for the river Sava in Zagreb, Croatia, stretching roughly over 32 km. Sava is part of the urban landscape but unfortunately, the connection between the city and its river has been lost. In 1964, the river Sava was regulated after a catastrophic flood . Since then, several projects and workshops have been organized with the goal of reconnecting the river to the city. This competition will generate new ideas for bringing the river back to the city under the overall concept of learning landscapes. This concept embraces participatory, transformative and process-oriented approaches to landscape development and design.
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Territorial Context
To the west, the planning area includes the entrance to the city of Zagreb and the Nature Park Medvednica, some quarries and a former cement factory located in Podsused District. As we follow the river downstreams to the east, there are lakes formed by gravel excavation and two recreational parks, Jarun and Bundek, located on each side of the river embankment. Further downstreams, the city dump Jakuševac and the Savica ornithological reserve and lakes can be found. The competion area ends at the eastern entrance to the city and the bridge Sava-Ivanja Reka.
The blue line marks the bridges, they will be start and end point of the competition zone. 1. quarries of nature park Medvednica; 2. lake Orešje; 3. closed cement factory; 4. lake Rakitje; 5. canal Sava-Odra; 6. sports recreation center Jarun; 7. park Bundek; 8. Savica ornithological reserve and lakes; 9. Jakuševac dump; 10. Sava – Ivanja Reka bridge, map source: google maps
Working scales
Students will work at various scales, preferably in interdisciplinary teams. The entire area is to be represented by a conceptual plan at a scale of 1:25 000. The concept will be complemented by a translation of the overall vision to a site. One out of three proposed detailing focus areas can be selected with working scales from 1:5000 – 1:500.
Focus Areas
- West entrance to the city of Zagreb – including the former cement factory (Podsused district), a part of theNature Park Medvednica with existing quarries and gravel excavation lakes Orešje and Rakitje
- Extended embankment area of river Sava from Jarun to the west and downstream to Jakuševac dump, Savica lakes and up to the bridge Sava-Ivanja Reka
Registration
Please register online in order to receive a submission ID and access to the competition documentation and the submission area: Online registration
The full call and all accompanying materials will be available by the end of September 2018.
Time line and key dates
- September 15, 2018: Registration starts
- October 8, 2018: Official start of the working period
- October 22 -26, 2018: recommended for individual site visits
- October 25, 2018 at 13 pm feedback colloquium in Zagreb
- November 21, 2018: Online Q&A session
- February 10, 2019: Submission deadline
- March 10, 2019: Jury decision
- April 10, 2019: Award ceremony during the landscape forum
About the Sava River
Historically, Sava River has always been a part of Zagreb, but the city has not developed for a long time close to its river due to the flooding. In the 19th century the town spread over the river Sava which led to the regulation of the waterway.
The largest regulatory measure has been implemented after the most devastating flood for the city in 1964, after which the Sava was regulated in the way we know it today. This system implies that most of the water runs between the embankment, which divides the town into two parts. The total width of the embankmet belt is 300m, it extends throughout Zagreb in the direction west-east with about 50km of embankment through the city.
The relationship between Sava and Zagreb, with about 350 ha of land dividing the city into two parts, is one of the primary themes of Zagreb’s spatial development, which for decades generates aspirations but quite controversial views on the future of its use, use and decoration. They range from different sources and views on the potentials and values of the corridor from hydropower potential, traffic usage, potential for expansion of construction, flood protection, landscape values and design, recreational potential, natural and social values. In all of them, there is a continuous tendency to connect the city to the two river banks, and one of the most recent proposals is the project “Zagreb na Savi”. This concept foresees the take-off of a large water wave outside the city of Zagreb. In that way there will be left through just enough water which passes into the reef of today’s river, also that means that the embankments will ceased to function as a flood defense and can be transformend. It is believed that this will be great developmental and spatial potential with about 350 ha of land that has so far been used to evacuate large water waves.
Today, the area along the Sava river is a lowland river landscape. Throught Zagreb it can be divided to river urban central landscape and river peripheral, suburban, and near-natural landscapes. In its route through Zagreb and its edges, we find a whole range of landscape features and uses.