Avalon Estate is a new residential development in Bucharest, set in a plot of land adjacent to a secondary succession of lakes crossing north of the city, with a rich biodiversity of flora and fauna, especially migratory birds, but also part of an extensive urban development of formerly agricultural lands between Bucharest and adjacent municipality of Voluntari, increasingly densified.

The project designed by ADNBA consists of 600 residential units, grouped as town houses, apartments, and individual units. The building are arranged along a central park from which a system of green pedestrian alleys connect each one of the buildings.

The main intension of the landscape proposal is to use the green areas as green infrastructure working together with the adjacent canals. A system of bio swales collects the rainwater from the perimetral streets and alleys, which is then guided to the central park, where water filtration basins help in filtering and absorbing the excess of water to avoid flooding, and then discharged as clean water into the lake. The selection of areas and species plays an important role in lowering the future maintenance costs as well as in producing a complex ecosystem, which can enrich the biodiversity of the site as well as to enhance the public spaces.

Landscape as green infrastructure

With global warming, increasingly visible, green spaces in urban and sub-urban contexts have the potential to be reorganised as efficient green infrastructures, in order to increase the resiliency of urban ecosystems and to provide better quality of life. Integrating storm-water management strategies, together with an ecological approach increases the biodiversity and can provide attractive environments for people, enhancing ecological and recreational functions.

In this case, we have designed a green water management system, with a central park and a linear sequential structure organized in a set of functional/thematic islands, each one with a specific leisure character, extending the existing natural bio-system along the lakes, into the new urban development.

The selection of the species has been focused on the use of:

  • native trees species (or their selected varieties) with high ecological value (Quercus robur, Salix sp., Populus sp., Acer campestre, Tilia sp., Carpinus sp,);
  • some exotic non-invasive species (Liquidambar styraciflua, Crataegus x lavallei);
  • species providing high seasonal variation thanks to their blooming, autumnal effects or berries (Fraxinus oxycarpa “Raywood”, Prunus cerasifera “Pissardi”, Sorbus aucuparia, Corylus colurna);
  • Non-allergenic or low pollen levels species.

From an ecological perspective the wide use of native species, which are more adapted to local climatic conditions, responds to the idea of establishing a resilient plant community, providing connection with the existing wet woodland, minimizing maintenance needs in the long term. Some of the species are attractive to birds and pollinators (Sorbus aucuparia, Crataegus sp., Prunus sp., Tilia sp.) and many others can be considered air-cleaning species, removing atmospheric particulates out of the air by trapping them on their leaves (Carpinus, Tilia, Corylus, Quercus, Acer).

The planting layout has been organized according to ecological, functional and aesthetical criteria. Trees are combined in groups of one or more species or aligned in rows, taking into account the dimensions each species reaches once mature.

A good combination between fast, medium and slow growing species will provide a good canopy cover level in the short-medium-long term. Few selective cuts (some Populus alba, Salix sp.) can occur after 10-20 years after planting, if necessary.

Landscape as architecture

The vegetation is used as spatial modelling element, shaping the space of daily urban life. The arrangements of spaces provide the background for social interaction in the residential complex, a richness of sequences and interfaces between buildings, nature and people. The central park can be experienced as a linear sequence of frames, each connected to its surrounding, gradually passing from more busy, formal, to quiet and intimate environments.

– A formal welcoming plaza, mostly mineral, connecting the more urban blocks of apartments, the commercial ground floors on the southern edge and the kindergarten.
– A quiet meadow patched with clusters of trees, open for informal picnics
– A denser forest type were one can roam and wander, refreshing in summer days
– A sports island and a children’s playground well protected by taller vegetation isolating the noisier activities. Surrounded by two 45 meters long benches stretching over two entire islands, that can gather all the neighbours around.
– Smaller clearings, pavilions and one more water feature where small ones can deep their feet
– The islands are traversed by a continuous path and a meandering linear bioswale invaded by water loving vegetation, ending in a large filtration pond, planted with colourful Iris pseudocorus, Iris sibirica, Nelumbo lucifera and dense Juncus effusus. This final island surrounded by smaller scale individual houses, opening the park towards the lake front and leading to the Club, which boosts a lush garden and naturally filtered swimming pool.

There is a dialogue between the existing green urban structure along shores of the lakes and the newly introduced expressions of nature.

The species are selected to define different moments in the experience of the spaces, but also to create a movement and an evolution of the natural element over time, in colours, volumes and textures, through seasons and years.

Starting from the bulbs that are the first to spring up at the end of winter, just for a few weeks, followed by the grasses that put up the bright greens in late spring, flowers through the whole summer, and the deciduous tree species that bring rich colours in autumn, on the background of the evergreen ground covers. Fruits provide a different type of interaction for people and birds, delimiting spaces for sports and leisure activities for all residents.

Architecture offices involved in the design:

Architecture and master planning:
ADNBA
https://adnba.ro/

Landscape architecture design:
Beros Abdul Architects
www.berosabdul.com

Landscape architecture team:
Christian Beros, Esenghiul Abdul, Cristiano del Toro, Claudia Trufas

Location: nr. I-VIII, Bulevardul Pipera, Voluntari 077191, Romania

Design year: 2017-2018

Year Completed: 2022

Client: Prime Kapital

Photography: Vlad Patru
https://www.vladpatru.com/

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