The Square
Client:
Client:
Year:
2023 May
The elemental shape of the square emerges in the project from the form of the site itself. The existing geometry of the central park offers a unique opportunity to preserve existing conditions and minimize impact while offering a most efficient solution. The square operates on three levels: the urban, the programmatic, and the ecological.
Urbanistically, the square allows the preservation of the existing site condition and historical typologies while allowing democratic access to views in and around the site through an encircling ramp. The existing geometry of a square allows us the opportunity to allow access diagonally, following the existing “natural” flows of the site.
Most importantly, as a project that is a token of a new urban, social, cultural, and event condenser, the proposal acts as an actual urban square. Tartu is a city whose most emblematic structures lack the presence of this elemental gathering urban space. The embracing of this geometry and the organization of the program accordingly allow our project to become a dynamic urban center by becoming what the city lacks most—the square.
Not only will the project offer a democratic square for the city, but it will also operate as one in order to amplify urban, cultural, social, intergenerational, and interspecies interactions.
