UPWr graduates receive prestigious award for landscape architects

The European Association of Landscape Architects (IFLA Europe) competition was aimed at landscape architecture students and graduates – up to the age of 35 – who are members of an IFLA-affiliated organisation. In Poland the only such organisation is the Association of Landscape Architecture (SAK). The concept of this year's edition was Boldness & Beauty, which, according to the organisers, was intended to inspire a discussion about the role and importance of landscape architects in shaping present-day landscapes. The entries were judged by a jury, comprising: Dr. Urszula Forczek-Brataniec (former Secretary General of IFLA Europe, Professor at the Cracow University of Technology in the Department of Landscape Architecture), Darija Perkovic (Vice President of IFLA Europe), Hendrik Vanderkamp (European Council of Spatial Planners) and Manuel Marti (Hunter Industries).

The entries were evaluated in two categories. In the first one – category A: conceptual projects – three main prizes were awarded. The first was awarded to a designer from Israel, the second to a designer from the United Kingdom, and the third to Marta Szar from Poland for her design of a water park in Krakow. In category B, which covered completed projects, the award went to graduates of the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences – Kamila Rogaczewska of Leaf Project Studio, and Katarzyna Kobierska of KA KOBIERSKA design studio – for their completed PoPo Park project on the Port Popowice housing estate in Wrocław. The design unit responsible for the project is Leaf Project Studio Piotr Reda, including: Landscaping design: lead designer: Kamila Rogaczewska, designer: KA KOBIERSKA Katarzyna Kobierska, Architectural design: TECLA – Architecture and Urban Planning.

– The estate is large, and designed to accommodate 5,000 residents, but our project is located between the Port and Park Zachodni, which is currently isolated by the construction of the Millennium Bridge. Other designers are responsible for the green areas inside the estate, while our design covers municipal plots in the park and the investor's plots on the escarpments and between the park and the estate - explains Kamila Rogaczewska, emphasising that the discussion, not only about the winning design, should start off with her pointing out that as a landscape architect she tries to design relationships. And PoPo Park is a synthesis of these relationships: biological, social, subject, spatial.

– We prepared the design with humans in mind, but above all the design was inspired by nature, as we also wanted it to be sustainable, so we designed in harmony with the environment that we encountered - says Kamila Rogaczewska, explaining that, for example, specific plants were chosen to create stable habitats, and by creating a mutual relationship with what already existed they built an ecosystem.

– This is a new creation, but at the same time it is not alien; it complements the habitat we had found and inventoried. We also wanted to ensure that we did not generate high maintenance costs, in addition to those required initially during the initial phase. This, in turn, means that the whole process, even including irrigation, takes place naturally, with minimal requirements when it comes to plant care. Another equally important element of the design was to create the impression that the park merges with the estate, with no clear boundary between the two spaces - says Kamila Rogaczewska, immediately referring to social relations, as the design involves the residents of both the older and new housing estates and, more specifically, bridges the gap between them to create a sense of community and common space.

– Our design also includes an unusual feature, something that is not obvious among designers - several scenarios of what will happen in the park, as some species will be displaced by others. In other words, we are letting nature choose the ratio of each species – smiles Kamila Rogaczewska, adding that in the relationships defining PoPo Park relationships between the stakeholders were also important. Work on the designs took nearly 1.5 years, which involved, for example, the required very extensive technical infrastructure and ownership structure on the site it covered. This, in turn, meant negotiations, changes, discussions, and successive versions of the design, mainly related to decisions about where trees could be planted so as to obtain the desired effect, but at the same time ensure that it was safe for the infrastructure.

The winning project is based on ecological engineering principles. The altitude difference between the park and the new housing estate was as much as 2.5 metres, but thanks to the constructed embankments and basins, the designers succeeded in enriching the landscape with a sloping path hidden in the vegetation, without architectural barriers and accessible to people with limited mobility, offering a park-like rather than infrastructural appearance. The team created a semi-natural environment using native plants considered to be weeds, thus changing the approach to the visual appearance of the public spaces. The colour scheme used by the designers is consistent with the shades of the facades of the buildings, the outdoor facilities, the residential alleys and the materials used.

– The plants we have designed may seem controversial from a present-day perspective, as they are widely recognised as weeds and rarely found in plant nurseries. However, we wanted to introduce our native species to a wider audience in a naturalistic and wild form, but at the same time carefully planned and acceptable to the public. We achieved the latter effect by applying a setting of elaborate pavement details, landscaping and an overall design consistent with the rest of the residential estate - adds Katarzyna Kobierska, the co-author of the project.

– This design covers aspects of landscape architecture, landscape engineering, landscape ecology and urban planning. The 2013 winners worked together with me on the gardening initiative 'Akcja w dechę' carried out by and for the Nasz Dom Society Children's Home in Wrocław. A gardening workshop was organised on the first day for the children, who then designed a garden themselves by their home. The simple, modular solutions made the gardens mobile, allowing them to be modified to suit the specific needs of a given time and place - says Dr. Justyna Jaworek-Jakubska, adding that the two award-winning designers, following new trends in landscape architecture - parks with natural succession, nature parks – had prepared a very bold and innovative design. Most designers, recognising the numerous constraints imposed by the development of the site, would have opted for simple solutions subject to the requests of those responsible for the land, and would have designed lawns and concrete paths.

– In this case the authors used various methods of landscape engineering, and were able to create rain gardens and incorporate trees and shrubs. When preparing the choice of plants they were inspired by Wrocław's wastelands, with species in the flowerbeds including tansy, among others. Second- and fourth-year landscape architecture students were able to observe the fruits of this project during a meeting with the winners. They were delighted and motivated, and believed that landscape architects could solve environmental and engineering challenges, while at the same time applying their knowledge of aesthetics. I'm glad that our graduates are 'open to challenges', overcoming successive limitations and design habits established in the Wrocław environment of landscape architects - smiles Dr. Jaworek-Jakubska.

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  Young and socially aware

  Students of the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences who want to get involved socially have the opportunity to join the Student Club of Honorary Blood Donors "Pijafka" and DKMS, QueerUP or the Support Team For Exchange Programs "STEP UP".

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  Creating the Green Arteries of Wrocław

  The Green Arteries of Wrocław, carried out by the city of Wrocław, is a design project by Agata Wałek, a graduate of landscape architecture at the Wrocław University of Environmental and Life Sciences. Professor Monika Ziemiańska, in turn, is responsible for providing substantive support to the city authorities on this project.