Design: Balázs Fürtön, Gleb Antipenko
Type: Open design competition
Year: 2020
Organizer: CAN actions
City scale concept. Located on the axes of the Mira avenue, Vyzvolennia square and DASU building create an opposition to the Theater square on the other end. The Theater square, Mira avenue, and our project site are now green spots on the city map, while the
Vyzvolennia square lacks function and looks neglected. With our proposal we see the new square and the building as an extension to the existing green and functional public space in the city center.
Reduce/Reuse/Recycle. The existing building and square can host a vast amount of functions. The renovation approach was reducing-reusing-recycling. Reduction was most important, we tried to avoid expensive additions. Functional hybridization of the spaces proves useful, many art-related or educational spaces can utilise the same structural layout. Recycling: old ceramic tiles of the building can be recycled and used for the production of the new facade tiles. The stone walls of the square can be reused for the new pavement. The tram lines are put to use again, various mobile urban furniture can be moved along them.
Memory of the place. Mariupol is a city with a rich history and many layers of architecture past. While it seems proud of its late 19th century architecture, the 20th century socialist layer (to which the square and the building belong to) seems to be neglected. With our proposal we tried to keep as much as possible of the existing elements adapting it to the new era of Mariupol development.
New city image: from machine factories to idea factories. Today Mariupol is seen as a heavy industrial city with polluted air and water, and gigantic factories that create a specific urban landscape. In the meantime, the new generation of creative young people in Mariupol is what we believe is the new driving force of the city economy. The new DASU building and the square have to become a platform for creative thinking, experiments, and interaction between generations to make Mariupol the pioneering
post-industrial city of Ukraine.
Mira avenue. The 1st part of the site filters traffic and introduces the marketplace elements to the visitors. Permanent canopies on the right side and movable smaller kiosks pave the way towards the building. The street level is to be opened to the public in as many instances as possible. Encouragement from the city administration might be necessary. Pavement: tightly spaced stone pavement for the trolley buses, smaller stone pavement for the pedestrians. Separation via integrated water drainage, direct access is kept for special vehicles (fire dpt., ambulance, etc.) through poles that
can be lowered remotely.
Vyzvolennia square. The park in the middle needs to be preserved and transparency has to be achieved: it increases public safety and makes the square more welcoming. The inner walls are carefully disassembled, cut to thin planes and put back as the new leveled pavement. The interior perimeter of the remaining stone walls are extended with benches and steps, the exterior side acts as a retaining wall for the new landscaping across the square. The tram lines are also kept, specially designed outside furniture moves along them: it is both a market stand for multiple sellers and a convenient bench for people to gather after work. In the case of festivals or outside events the furniture can be reorganized according to the specific need of the event. Pavement: smaller stone pavement, with a gentle transition to the green zones surrounding the DASU building.
Courtyards. The right courtyard (seen from Vyzvolennia square) is a joint place for a restaurant and a club. The third facade hosts a secondary entrance to the DASU building, to the Community Initiatives Centre. The left courtyard is more actively used: the mostly blind facade of the theatre wing makes it a decent space for outside training, skating or similar youthful activities.
DASU building concept. The existing floor plans were organised along a middle corridor. This is a reasonable approach for creating cellular office buildings, but the new mix of functions is far more heterogeneous. A vertical circulation shaft in the tower area shrinks in size as the building and the prospective crowd does is sufficient for our proposal. The front of the building, its most representative part, hosts major education and office functions. The ground floor is occupied with book and souvenir shops, restaurant and cafe. Additional informal restaurant-bar is located in the basement with an access to the courtyard and a separated terrace. Additional restaurant is located at the bottom level of the tower with an access to the roof. Research laboratories and IT school can enjoy a direct access to the roof at the second floor as well. Theater and auditorium at the back of the building share a separate entrance and foyer. The right part of the basement level accessing the courtyard is given for the night club. While the more quite left part accommodates the music school and theater rehearsal space. The Community Initiatives Centre resides at the bottom. This is where any citizen can come in, gather information or provide ideas. The ground and 1st floor is an exhibition foyer and museum. Many places in the renewed DASU building creates products of high value, let it be art pieces, results of participative planning, photos of exquisite theatre performances, conferences held in the event hall, or successful exams of the dance school, the music school, or research project conclusions. The front and the middle of the building are now new insulated facades with ceramic tile finish. The new grey ceramic tile preserves the size of the previous tiles, grey glossy color resembles that the finish is new. The front part of the building is extended with a steel balcony structure to create additional space for interaction and access to the street level. The new structure has a rusty reddish color as a reference to the industrial heritage of Mariupol. The back part is a stucco finish facade with acoustic insulation for both the theater and lecture hall purposes with a layer of iron grid for vertical plants growing.
We weren’t selected to the top 10 finalists.