The Green Ring

 TEAM DATA

Team Representative: Radostina Radulova-Stahmer (DE) – Architect-urbanist; Associate: Deniza Horländer (DE) – Architect; Contributor: Viktoriya Yeretska (AT) – Architect

Technikerstrasse 3, 8010 Graz, (AT)
+436706083858 - info@studiod3r.com 

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^{D. Horländer, R. Radulova-Stahmer & V. Yeretska}

INTERVIEW

1. How did you form the team for the competition?

We are two sisters and we love thinking about space together. We share the same dedication and devotion to architecture and urbanism but we look from different perspectives at the same spatial problems. Since our graduation in 2010 we are doing projects together as STUDIOD3R. Currently we received several international awards such as 1. Prize Europan 14 in Graz, 1. Prize YAP MAXXI Rome and Finalist at Seeterrassen Aspern in Vienna among others. For the Europan 15 project site in Hyvinkää Finland we teamed up with a student Viktoriya Yeretska from TU Graz where Radostina is teaching urbanism.

2. How do you define the main issue of your project, and how did you answer on this session main topic: the place of productive activities within the city?

In order to overcome the spatial separation caused by the railway, we propose to bring together the fragmented areas of the Hyvinkää city centre in a ring-shaped manner by means of green space connections. The three different bridge connections over the railway tracks, the forest bridge, the square bridge and the active bridge for pedestrians and cyclists are a characteristic element of the project. The biggest challenge is to make the central places of the city easily accessible while at the same time being flexible and keeping the busy car traffic away from the centre. One of Hyvinkää's strengths is the compactness of its urban structure. The overall objective of the project is, on the one hand, to introduce a large-scale bicycle highway along the green corridor in a north-south direction with a loop on the project site connecting the major employers and the residential areas. A special focus is placed on the bicycle infrastructure. The cycle path network is expanded and overlaid with green links to create a high-quality cycling experience. On the other hand, public collective garages in the periphery of the city centre are proposed to intercept motorised individual traffic and reduce the car infrastructure. For this purpose, a dense bicycle traffic network will be created and alternative mobility options such as e-vans, e-call taxis and e-car sharing will be offered. The heart of the productive uses is the new greenhouse, which is located on the isolated station site. It serves as a cultural and community centre and offers uses such as bicycle repair, mobility centre, gastronomy, cultural sauna and a regional market.

3. How did this issue and the questions raised by the site mutation meet?

The reduction of automobile infrastructure and the rethinking of the functionalist city model in favour of an active mobility, lively, liveable and walkable city is one central challenge in European urbanism. This was also the main challenge in the site mutation in Hyvinkää. The concept of the productive city can serve as a flexible strategy to create an urban social and micro-economic magnet next to the Hyvinkää main station.

4. Have you treated this issue previously? What were the reference projects that inspired yours?

During the last three years we focused a big part of our research and design on the topic of the productive city. Radostina engaged with the topic in the academic context and supervised a master studio on productive city at the Leibniz University in Hanover and several bachelor studios at the TU Graz. Further we developed a research proposal on the issue for the Robert Bosch Foundation. And we still keep on searching for adequate spatial solutions with our office STUDIOD3R in order to meet the challenges on different levels, social, environmental, economic or legal.

5. Urban-architectural projects like the ones in Europan can only be implemented together with the actors through a negotiated process and in time. How did you consider this issue in your project?

The development in time is project immanent; not only due to the scale of the project itself but also due to the complexity of the mobility infrastructure. To assure the flexibility of the project we propose an incremental implementation and we developed a phasing in three stages according to Jan Gehl’s motto "First life, then spaces, then buildings”, (1) the temporal cultural activation of the site in order to reshape the collective memory, (2) the introduction of open space and green space qualities on site and (3) the building structure of the new neighbourhood.

6. Is it the first time you have been awarded a prize at Europan? How could this help you in your professional career?

We have been awarded the 1. Prize already in Europan 14 site in Graz where Radostina teaches at the Institute of Urbanism, TU Graz. We are very excited to contribute to the urban development of Hyvinkää in Finland this time. The Europan competition is a great opportunity for us to engage in architectural and urban discourse and elaborate specific solutions for general European spatial problems. The Europan network is supporting and encouraging young professionals to innovate the discipline anew. And we are proud to be part of it again!

TEAM IDENTITY

Office: STUDIOD3R
Functions: Urban planning, architecture
Average age of the associates: 33 years old

Has your team, together or separately, already conceived or implemented some projects and/or won any competition? If yes, which ones?

STUDIOD3R Selected awards since 2017:

• Special Mention Open International Competition Europan 15 Hyvinkää Finland, 2019
• 1st Prize Open International Competition Young Architecture Program MAXXI, Rome / MoMA PS1 New York,
• 2018 Finalist Open International Competition Seeterrassen Aspern Vienna Austria, 2018
• 1st Prize Open International Competition Europan 14 Graz Austria, 2017