Projektavimo konkursai. Laisvės al. Kaune
A New ‘Down Town’ in Kaunas
International ideas competition “Laisves Avenue as a Space for European Communication ", Kaunas, 2005.
Kaunas is a city with a unique setting, a distinct city structure and a range of other potentials and advantages. Yet, the city centre needs to be injected with something new to enable Kaunas to gain recognition as a leading European city. We therefore propose a five-fold urban strategy to create a new ‘down town’ area, supported by functions, spaces and new environments suitable for the 21st century urban living.
- Strengthening of the existing ‘green network’ of unique landscape elements around the city centre.
- Using key building sites to generate new, landmark, contemporary buildings and public spaces that speak of the future, not the past.
- Proposal of a series of high-level, small-scale building interventions (micro-flats, apartments, offices), strategically located at key positions in the existing urban fabric.
- Proposal of renovation and celebration of the ‘hidden city’ of Kaunas – the unique courtyard conditions that can be found within the city centre urban blocks.
- Proposal to reorganize vehicular traffic in order to enable the city centre to offer a diverse range of streets and public spaces.