Public spaces in Ivano-Frankivsk are not well organized for leisure of different age groups.
The study found that public spaces of central part of Ivano-Frankivsk have a different degree of congestion: some are used for festive performances, season and holiday trade; others are purely transit areas. These areas become places of unauthorized trading with lots of inharmonious objects, elements of advertising and garbage. The absence of places for short-term stay of children and families with children in these areas is especially noticeable. In this regard, along with other public service facilities, there are unauthorized set children’s entertainment facilities of various kinds: trampolines, bicycles, electric cars, which usually ignore any safety rules for both children and random people passing by. These areas are in need of improvement, detailed elaboration, filling with additional sense and qualitative elements of landscape, urban design (both static and mobile types) and with possibility of quick transformation.
To solve the problem an international architectural competition to create a high quality public space for children, for families with children and for tourists traveling with children was announced.
Five places, which are currently not used or used as the transit areas and which suit better for children spaces, were selected in the city center.
The jury was appointed to nominate the winner. The jury consisted of 13 professionals: architects, landscape designers, urbanists, young mothers and social activists from Ukraine, Poland, Germany, Austria, Canada and Chile.
The architectural competition was widely advertised, so 685 participants from 68 countries were registered there. 79 projects were received. And 14 works were shortlisted by the jury.
The winners are the following projects:
– First Prize – “Children Utopia” of a team from Shanghai, China
– Second prize – project of a team from Rivne, Ukraine
– Third Prize – “Loop” of a team from Bandung, Indonesia
All projects of the winners you can find here.
The competition lasted from 20 November 2014 to 15 May 2015 and was implemented by Teple Misto Platform, NGO “Carpathian Moms” and the Department of City Planning and Architecture of Ivano-Frankivsk City Council.
