102 – SD0420 – TRANSYLVANIA LABS SRL
Main authors: Árpád Zsolt Bartha, Birthler Klaus, Loránt Kovács, Pulugor Jonathán Zsolt, Endre Ványolós
Co-authors: Kinga Katinka Ferenczy, Gáspár Iszlai, Dániel Komes, Tas Sándor Molnár
Architecture collaborators: Dániel Székely, Mark Cîmpian
Specialty collaborators: Áron Géczi, Mária Henning, Krisztina Ferencz, Szabolcs Siklody, Klementina Székely
Country or countries of origin: Romania, Hungary
OAR Territorial branch: Mureș, Brașov-Covasna-Harghita
Design Concept and Urban Gesture
The jury appreciated the gradient from the riparian zone to a zone between meadow and bosque, reinventing the lost river pattern. The hippodrome plan was very legible and coherent to the jury and had a scale at which the ecological dynamics would function well. Junctions were well placed but the monumental built elements seemed over scaled relative to the potential use and effect.Landscape Strategy
The jury noted the clarity of the landscape strategy through Miyawaki patches, where new plant communities emerge and quickly become legible as a regenerative strategy, engaging public attention. The jury recognized that the plan to increase the surface between ecotones and hydrological conditions would increase biodiversity. The jury felt the Riverbank interventions were somewhat repetitive in the experiences. The rendered images did not reflect the scheme’s emergent potential.
There is much in the text that could have been better represented in elaborated diagrams for the site. The jury found the bridge over the pond near the horse stables as extraneous.Sustainability
The authors defined self-sustaining plant communities through topographic manipulation and the creation of new patches, which provide an ecological and economic alternative to traditional planting. The potential of the new “Floodplain” ‘s ephemeral wetlands was not elaborated, but they would increase amphibian and insect habitat. The sponge city concept did not seem tied to the city.Urban Connections
The jury questioned the parking set next to the turbine building, which is an iconic element of the new park system. The jury questioned the relocation of the tennis courts to the link between the hippodrome and the municipal park. The river connection is unclear, and the jury was unsure if it would be technically feasible.Technical Feasibility & Management
The jury appreciated the economical strategy of cut-and-fill for a more ecological function and for the urban connection to the river. The hydrological system, while ambitious, would require further elaboration and evaluation to assess feasibility. – aprecierea Juriului
Mureș Parks, the gateway to the riverbank
Rediscovering and old waterscape
The new park serves as the city’s main point of contact with the Mureș River, a connecting link between the various components of the urban fabric, and a gateway to the waterway that gave the city its name, Târgu Mureș. This area along the regulated river, once a marshland, was shaped by the riverbed’s constant shifting, periodically causing major floods that affected the local community. The present project is an urban regeneration initiative that proposes reconnecting the city to the water through introductory routes that capture the essence of the place, showcasing the Mureș River in its various forms: the regulated watercourse, the water of the dead branch, the Turbina Canal, etc. The three main routes form a network of connections, intended to reconnect the fragments of a recreational area that has developed over the course of a century, much like the river branches that once interwove the river area in its natural state.
The three main routes are distinguished by the context they traverse and the narrative they weave—through a residential area, the established historic park and the horse racetrack, and the still-wild river area—thus offering a complete landscape experience of the river and its interaction with the city. The new park aims, on the one hand, to reconnect neighboring urban areas—residential neighborhoods and the perimeter of the historic center—and, on the other hand, to reintegrate the disparate components of a water landscape excessively fragmented by roadways, railways, and the built elements of the flood protection system. Facilitating internal connections within the Turbine Canal–Municipal Park–Hippodrome area, as well as external connections with the city, as drivers of functional revitalization, is a key objective of the project.
The three main components of the proposed park complex are the Turbine Canal, a revitalized linear green space in a residential neighborhood; the Municipal Park, the successor to a historic park that has been restored and revitalized; and the Hippodrome Park, a renaturalized area separated from the vicinity of the new stadium. These three components can be implemented in phases, almost independently of one another, with the proposed connections—in addition to the one along the Turbine Canal—in the area where Municipal Park and the Hippodrome meet, a redesigned connection that crosses under the railroad tracks and the bypass, with the remaining connections not being mandatory, but rather recommended, welcome, and potentially phased in the future.”
