Lost Spaces Competition. Calgary, Canada

parking.temp

Infrastructure populated with public space
Lost Spaces Competition

There is no such thing as a lost space in traditional urban environments. The very concept was utterly unimaginable until recently. It seems that the lost spaces are a byproduct of modernization. The in-between spaces within the infrastructure of our mechanized urban dwelling come as a result of the leaky planning processes behind them. The whole subject of modernity is still new, so it is only natural that there is a lot of uncovered territory. The lost spaces are manifestation of this still incomplete process of modernization; these are blind spots in our norms, our safety limitations, and our new and still crude notion of comfort. They are however a signal and an opportunity to improve all that.

Location
Parking lot on t 9th Avenue in Calgary, between the rail tracks and the downtown.
The large parking lot hardly fulfills the land potentials. Parking lots are added to invite the people, but they eat away the space that should accommodate them once they arrive. It is a sort of a storage room, a dead and inactive space cramped right in the centre of a beautiful and vibrant city. This land somehow needs to be mixed with the public space, and it needs to become more usable for the Calgarians. At the same time, the garage has to remain large enough, and simple enough to construct in order to be economically viable.

Planing Goals
– To double the capacity of the parking space.
– To include the location in the network of other public spaces in the city.
– To increase the quality of the natural environment.
– To do it in a way that won’t hinder the potential for future development and growth of the downtown area.

Strategy
Temporary, modular multi-level garage, made for the life span ranging between five and forty years, with a green rooftop populated with local vegetation. 75% of the roof is to be used as public space and the rest as facilities for recreation and hospitality.