Square

Location – Strategically positioned between a busy highway and a dense residential neighborhood, the Biryanak Metro Plaza emerges as an urban oasis above the Briyank metro station in Tehran. This urban space is intended to serve as a vibrant community hub catering to a diverse array of residents spanning all age groups. Nonetheless, as the site is located between a constant-traffic highway and a dense adjacent neighborhood, the physical conditions of the site posed a unique challenge in terms of sound pollution and accessibility.

The village center:
The proposed new building faces the existing town hall. It uses the entire depth of the plot and defines the new village square with a simple and clear gesture. The overall urban design idea follows the strong orientation of the built environment. This position connects the newly defined promenade zone with the school complex and with the residential area towards the hill.

The village center:
The proposed new building faces the existing town hall. It uses the entire depth of the plot and defines the new village square with a simple and clear gesture. The overall urban design idea follows the strong orientation of the built environment. This position connects the newly defined promenade zone with the school complex and with the residential area towards the hill.

EXISTING CONDITION – The area of intervention can be segmented into three zones that form logical spatial units: Ban Jelačić square : a wide street with trees that occasionally hosts seasonal events; a square in front of the market: generator of the largest daily pedestrian and bicycle traffic; and the main city square Zrinski: an apparently oversized square bounded on one side by the green facade of city park, and on the other side by the facade of an unfinished block of various contents and the city hall to the east and the old “Podravka” building in the west. Each of the mentioned spaces has a specific potential that distinguishes it from others, and the possibility of joining the system of public spaces in the center of Koprivnica. The main square of Zrinski, seen from the air, acts as an intersection of roads and pedestrian wpaths stretched between streets and smaller squares in the east and west. This spatial tension has made the main square of Koprivnica a transit place : a space defined more by flow and movement, and less by lingering and everyday activities. With intuitive lines of movement, cyclists bypass the vast empty space “cutting” the square diagonally in order to get from one end to the other as quickly as possible.

The renewal of the main plaza of Cosoleacaque City is part of a nationwide program of public space interventions under the SEDATU coordination and financed by the federal government of Mexico. The design principles applied to this specific plaza are aligned with the idea of the improvement of the quality of social life based on a deep review of how and why people have used the existing physical facilities.

The rehabilitation of Chambésy station square defines new access to the old village, as part of a wider renovation project of the railways undertaken by the Swiss Federal Railways (CFF). The intervention aims to restore a space that for fifteen years served as a parking lot and for CFF facilities. The reappropriation of this neglected space is part of the political strategy of promoting soft mobility and encourages residents to use the train. On the edge of the new train station square, the project integrates the renovation of an old cottage building, which becomes part of a spatial sequence connecting the train stop to the historic village.