• COMPETITION RESULT: 3rd place
• YEAR: 2022
• CLIENT: Municipality of Smiltene district
• TEAM:
  ALPS landscape architects: Indra Ozoliņa, Sendija Adītāja, Ilze Rukšāne, Līva Mankus, Egita Fabiane
  Architecture: MARK architects – Mārtiņš Ošāns, Niklāvs Krievs
  Visualizations: Santa Matule
  Engineering solutions: Enerz – Alvis Epners

PUBLIC SPACE AS A RECOGNITION SYMBOL

– Smiltene quarter is a new opportunity for the city to create a dynamic, green city quarter. The Smiltene quarter is expected to become a central meeting place with the interaction of indoor and outdoor environments. A new intersection is being formed which “ties” together various spaces of the city together, it becomes a new landmark and an emotionally expanded space of the city center.

– By maximally preserving the dominance of the landscape park of Smiltene manor (Kalnamuiža) and the spatial feeling of the industrial architecture of Smiltene Vidusdzirnava, the historical heritage has been supplemented with non-dominant new volumes. The new volumes are planned in a modern way, without copying the historical ones. The presence of the industrial past is encoded in the landscaping and interior elements, symbolically reacting to the industrial character of the historical Vidusdzirnavai.

TERRITORIAL DEVELOPMENT PRINCIPLES ARE BASED ON:

– Quality development of outdoor spaces related to indoor spaces – integration of historical buildings into the new building scenario, without losing the industrial character of the quarter, but by brightening it up and creating a unique, unrepeatable space and outdoor space, which, with its architectural values, would become a recognizable destination on the city center.
– The principles of water-dependent functional spaces and their landscape planning, creating a smart block as an important stopping point between the New and Old Park, opening up and giving the opportunity to access and use this section of the river for recreation. Thus revealing the diversity of the landscape of the Abul river and including the quarter in the city’s tourism route.
– Easy and modern mobility.
– The greenery of the inner quarter and the Abul coastal solution also serve as “green connections” simultaneously. The vertical solution, ramp system and bridges ensure the organization of pedestrian flow through the quarter, creating a pedestrian movement infrastructure connection between the center of Smiltene and the territory of the Smiltene manor.