Special Mention

A series of multisensorial elements enhance the scope of orientation for disabled people. The site has a dense system of pathways that are well connected to the outer quarters.

The Team
Student: Katarzyna Urbanowicz
Professor: Prof. Lucyna Nyka
School: Gdansk University of Technology (Poland)

The Idea
The author of this project broadly infuses the site with a series of multisensorial elements that enhance the scope of orientation for impaired people. The project attempts to create diverse experiences of various spaces through clever circulation of “slow traffic” combined with a dense system of pathways in a secure central green public area. It integrates the river Wien in an essential way.

The Project
The project has three dominant urban elements: a large housing complex along the southern edge; a series of curved bicycle paths swinging across the site, flying over the river Wien, and extending out into the surrounding districts; and a third element, a central green area that constitutes the heart of the site. The community center stands as an elegant building in the middle an elaborate River Park.

The Jury Assessment
The jury decided to award this project a special mention because of its unique multisensorial approach. Though many of the requirements have not been fulfilled, the project makes a number of interesting suggestions worthy of discussion. One of them is how to give the site a stamp of coherent urban identity.