Concept for the development of the Gurov Park // Mariupol city

Context

Gurov Park is one of the few beautiful green areas in the city, near the water and an amusement park. It is pretty big (40 hectares) and has a favourable location: major transport arteries pass through it, and 100,000 people live and work within 30 minutes' access to the location. Most visitors come from all over the city.

‍

If the park is extended along the Kalchik River embankment, it could become the centre of a large 10-kilometre green zone for the entire city.

‍

‍

Idea

‍

In 2019, our team developed a concept for the development of Gurov Park. The main ideas were: to make the park all-season, interesting and comfortable for all residents and to increase the time spent visiting the space from one to four hours.

‍

Analysis

‍

To identify the main challenges and future direction of development, we:

assessed the condition of the park;

surveyed 300 residents living within a 30-minute radius;

analysed the best European parks that are similar in size, environment and location.

‍

Offer

‍

1. Functional zones

‍

We have divided functional zones to make the park enjoyable for everyone:

• Active programme. 18 types of spaces: sports areas, playgrounds, locations for climbing, etc. They are located in clusters, each of which differs in size and style.
• Passive programme. 10 types of spaces: picnic lawn, street checkers/chess, spherical cinema, etc. The park needs quiet areas, especially along valuable landscapes.‍
• Magnets. 8 types of spaces: extreme park, swing park, zipline, etc. These locations will make the park special and will be magnets for residents from all over the city.

‍

{{slider-20="/en/sliders"}}

‍

‍

2. Reconstruction

Boulevard

‍

‍

{{slider-21="/en/sliders"}}

‍

‍

Ukrainian House and Square

‍

{{slider-22="/en/sliders"}}

‍

‍

Embankment

‍

{{slider-23="/en/sliders"}}

‍

‍

Event Square

‍

‍

{{slider-24="/en/sliders"}}

‍

‍

Adventure park

‍

{{slider-25="/en/sliders"}}

‍

‍

Garden

‍

‍

{{slider-26="/en/sliders"}}

‍

‍

Activation of the hills

‍

‍

{{slider-27="/en/sliders"}}

‍

‍

Ring route for walking

‍

‍

{{slider-28="/en/sliders"}}

‍

‍

3. Landscape

The large area of the park makes it possible to use a variety of plant species and divide the park into natural areas: a decorative garden, a picnic lawn, a barbecue area with shrubs, a park area, a boulevard with rows of broadleaf trees and wetlands along the park's boundary.

‍

We recommended reducing the number of non-native decorative trees and using local plants: forest trees, perennial steppe grasses and flowers, and local shrub species. This will increase the ecological value of each zone and provide a rich environment for insects and birds.

‍

‍

What's next

As of 2021, the first stage of the park was built. Unfortunately, our team did not manage to visit it after the opening.

‍

{{slider-29="/en/sliders"}}

‍

Team

Maks Yakover - founder of Big City Lab urban bureau

Victoria Titova - CEO of Big City Lab urban bureau

Tadas Jonauskis - founder of the architectural agency PUPA

Evgeny Mushkin - CEO of Expocentre of Ukraine

‍

‍