Project Name: Bridging Prague – Claim the River
Location: Prague, Czech Republic
Category: Competition
Project Team: Amália Miranda, Ana Teles and Carlos Dias
Project Year: 2012

The Vltava riverbank and its immediate context are not a part of everyday experiences of city residents as well as the cultural imagination. The proposal seeks to claim the river as the first step for civic space and a territory for multiple uses: ecological, economic and social. Our approach stands for a new economy that values local production, urban agriculture, self-sustaining energy, art, sociability and the most important, the people. We will make full use of the landscape as a productive, ecological infrastructure for enhancing social equality, generating economic vitality, and regaining cultural identity.

Elaborate new models for the city-life is one of the goals. The strategy is flexible, and therefore dynamic and sustainable. The inhabitants are the main players in this scene, they will decide the future of the city. This policy leverages underutilized and waste resources, finds efficiencies in collaboration and cross-fertilization between urban and environmental systems.

The culture and recreation are mainly concentrated in the historical centre. The northern area seems to be left over and it seeks for intervention. New possibilities will emerge from the proposal.

The river must be used as a corridor between the existing green network. The ecological island is developed in one of the areas that is possible to flood by extending one of the river branches.

Lack of accesses to the riverfront. It is important to make a riverfront with fluid circulation. The proposal tries to achieve that through walking boards in the places with no space for promenades.

To improve the people’s interaction with the river, a new amphitheatre is proposed where people can rest, socialize and recreate themselves. It is connected by a boardwalk where they can experience the river in a closer perspective. The river pool seeks to give back to the people the river that they used to swim on.

Close to the promenade where the famous farmer’s market takes place, the “Amphibious Farm” rises as a greenhouse in the water which is able to float when the water level increases. This place has an educational purpose where kids can learn about farms in the city and how to grow their own crops, combined with a restaurant and terrace where people can eat local produced food and rest in the Vltava River with nice views to the city of Prague.

This section of the river is put forward as a catalyst to accelerate the transition from industry to a 21st century green economy based combined with an art installation. Renewing the strength of the river and its diversity as a living ecosystem will enhance the health of the city and promote riparian habitat for migrating birds and endangered wildlife.
A molded alluvial wetlands landscape is claimed to create a civic scaled climate change eco-infrastructure that provides bio-filtration for storm water flows and increased flood protection.

You can have access to the proposal panel here “Bridging Prague – Claim the River”.