118 – VS0342 – PUNCT BIROU DE ARHITECTURĂ SRL
Autori principali: Andrei Bacoșcă, Mădălina Doroftei, Ruxandra Grigoraș, Lázár Csaba, Mădălina Perju, Daniel Șerban
Țara sau țările de origine: România
Filiala teritorială OAR: Transilvania
Concept de design și gest urban
Conexiunile urbane sunt bine articulate. Traseele din parcul Hipodrom încadrează peisajul, în timp ce perspective devin vizibile din noi puncte de acces. Modelarea terenului (grading) aduce o geometrie bine scalată în plan și secțiune. Juriul a apreciat soluțiile de calmare a traficului adiacent malului râului, iar definirea interfeței prefigurează viitoarea integrare a campusului sportiv Romgaz. Cu toate acestea, proiectului îi lipsește o strategie ecologică clară. Geometriile proiectului sunt destul de intense și oarecum ferme, nefiind corelate sau puse în contrast cu noi sisteme ecologice care ar crește biodiversitatea.Strategia de peisaj
Strategia de peisaj împarte spațiile hipodromului în mod inteligent și stabilește noi axe vizuale în parc, cu pâlcuri de arbori care încadrează scenografic, într-un stil ”picturesque” geometric. Strada care domină o latură a hipodromului duce lipsă de articulare în secțiune, cum ar fi arbori de aliniament pentru umbră sau zone umede (swales). Pasajul subteran care conectează parcul municipal de hipodrom este complex, dar generos. Juriul a remarcat faptul că parcarea nu ar trebui să fie amplasată lângă clădirea turbinei. Parcul municipal a părut mai puțin studiat sub aspectul calității spațiale și al vegetației. Perspectivele randate au reflectat bine schema peisageră.Conexiuni urbane
Conexiunile urbane, deși închegate, au fost considerate prea accentuate. Juriul nu a considerat că una dintre principalele conexiuni pietonale ale schemei, de la râul Mureș, traversând hipodromul către oraș via râul Pocloș, ar fi fezabilă sau ar oferi o experiență de calitate.Sustenabilitate
Vegetația propusă limitează potențialul de dezvoltare a habitatelor. Comunitățile peisagere/vegetale au fost listate, însă a fost neclar unde și când ar urma să fie aplicate în cadrul proiectului. S-a observat o lipsă de atenție față de conectivitatea ecologică a peisajului. Sistemul hidrologic a fost tratat superficial și a limitat potențialul apei de a stimula noi procese ecologice.Fezabilitate tehnică și management
Proiectul a părut simplu de implementat și de gestionat. – aprecierea Juriului
The Hippodrome
The hippodrome, clearly the core space of the green system, offers not only an unusually generous open area, but also a surprisingly strong connection to the city and its hinterland, framed in multiple directions. While its position between city and river is clear in plan, its key feature is the long views toward the city center and the Mureș Valley.
What might seem like a constraint – the dual role as both park and occasional equestrian venue – becomes an advantage. It allows for the preservation of a vast, central lawn, open to multiple uses, which maintains both visual and physical continuity between the city and the river. In configuring the future park, planted areas define view corridors and structure the park’s edges and centre. At a finer scale, tree clusters segment space, stage perspectives, and create intermediate zones, intimate clearings and informal play areas. Access points concentrate amenities and clarify currently fragmented connections, while a clear circulation network ties together the sequence of spaces.
Connectivity is a key concern, especially at the two main entrances, from the Municipal Park and from the Mureș. Designed as generous, memorable spaces, they function as destinations rather than mere links. Continuous, step-free paths, planting, water features, and a pavilion with viewing platforms make them accessible and attractive. Vertical design is essential: toward the park, a railway underpass lowers Insulei Street, while toward the river, the street rises to the embankment level. A set of aligned platforms on both sides allows views of both the river and the city skyline from a single vantage point.
A third entrance near the stud farm integrates public and equestrian functions, including an enclosure where horses can be observed outside training periods.
Overall, the hippodrome is envisioned as a city-wide representative space – central yet distinctly open. It offers a range of spatial experiences at different scales, and a shared environment where the spatial strategy actively encourages a sense of togetherness.
The riverbank
The intervention along the Mureș riverbank focuses on partial renaturalization within the constraints of its floodplain setting, while preserving its remarkable spatial quality, defined by wide openness and long views along the river and toward distant landforms. The proposal combines landscape and habitat elements: elongated clusters of trees with native groundcover, aligned with flood flow, provide shade and support riparian habitats. A series of pontoons, linked to access points from the city, enable water access for rowing sports.
The South-Western sector
At the western end of the site, the hay barn area and the Ady Endre neighborhood park are designed as local leisure zones, with sports fields and diverse playgrounds, including grassy mounds formed by reshaping the existing rubble heap. A reorganized circulation network structures the edge of the neighbourhood, connecting it to the trail along the embankment, and linking it to the wider green system via a pedestrian bridge, over the oxbow natural reserve.
The Municipal Park
The intervention in the Municipal Park focuses on three main goals: restoring the spatial value of the historic layout, creating a dignified entrance, and reorganizing functions and circulation to reflect its new role as a connected space rather than a dead end.
The historic composition is clarified by reaffirming the central axis, narrowing its overly wide mineral surface, replanting tree alignments, and extending it toward the entrance. An additional perpendicular axis organizes outdoor sports areas and strengthens the overall structure, introducing partial symmetry.
The entrance is reconfigured as a coherent urban esplanade, where a pattern of individual trees reinforces the central axis, while also providing representative access to the multipurpose hall and a viewing platform toward the turbine dam.
At the opposite end, a compact multifunctional space marks connections toward the hippodrome and new sports facilities. The proposal also recovers underused or abandoned areas, adding new green spaces, including a sunny lawn and playgrounds previously lacking in the park.
The Turbine Canal sector
The Turbine Canal sector is an exceptional urban space, almost ready-made, whose existing qualities are enhanced through targeted landscape, functional, and circulation interventions. Currently acting as a boundary between neighbourhoods, it is redefined as a continuous, accessible public space along both banks.
The northern bank, currently largely inaccessible, is transformed into a continuous pedestrian promenade, protected from traffic by tree alignments and complemented by small resting areas at the water’s edge. The more generous southern bank, with a finer urban grain, is developed as a diverse, human-scale public space, offering varied functions, planting sequences, and leisure areas along its length.
The design is differentiated by sector: an initial shared space for pedestrians and cyclists with leisure zones; a middle section with separated pedestrian riverside circulation and shared local access for cars and bicycles; and a final segment with a more conventional street configuration, where cycle lanes are integrated into the roadway and continuous sidewalks maintain access along the water.
Planting strategy and stormwater management
The proposed planting strategy enhances the existing qualities of each space. Outside the hippodrome, where the near absence of medium and tall vegetation requires substantial planting, interventions are mostly targeted and functional.
Along the Turbine Canal, for instance, planting reinforces the green corridor by defining its broader edges rather than completing the already mature but uneven riverside tree line. New alignments are introduced outwards along Aleea Carpați, while on the southern edge a more diverse, layered vegetation supports a relaxed leisure atmosphere.
Large tree specimens are used sparingly and placed in key locations: the Municipal Park esplanade and central axis, main access points, the functional “rooms” of the hippodrome and accent trees on the central lawn. Other trees are selected for compatibility and fast growth, with flexible planting sizes that allow cost control and phased implementation.
Stormwater management follows a combined approach, integrating swales and rain gardens into planting strips and key landscaped areas. The main intervention is a system of retention ditches and ponds at the hippodrome, aligned with the path network, including two retention ponds, one of which extends formally the former meander of a Mureș side arm.
