Waterscape Park by PROAP – Estudos e Projectos de Arquitectura Paisagista Lda

Built in 2024 / 2025 Built Landscapes / 2025 Entries / 2025 Public Projects / Albania /
proap.pt

Amplitude is the first word that comes to mind upon initial observation of the project site, with its striking continuity between the mountainous landscape, the vast agricultural fields and the meandering river which culminates in a lake as ample as a sea and unveils a distant horizon line to the north.

The real protagonist, and the core of the project’s concept, is the relation between all the elements that form the larger system; The construction of a consciousness that the park is not a sole element; it is, instead, part of a set that includes the topography of the valley, with its mountains, river and the Ohrid and Prespa lakes, and the urban settlement and all its components.

The consequence of the existing strong separation between the lake and the agricultural rural landscape is a water element that is completely cut off from the rest of the system and is an obstacle to the natural and flowing movement.

The desire to make the park as an enduring occupation represents a powerful collective will towards the preservation of a strategic reserve of land. Green areas, free of construction, are empty compensations for the full building strips. The current proposal considers an innovative scenario: a waterscape as a celebration of the void. It is also a direct reminder of the contrasting strategy that led to the wild speculation suffered by most of the Mediterranean coast that turned it into a most unrecognizable landscape.
A river basin is an open system by definition, so the architecture must follow the same criteria of porosity and permeability. The buildings and landscape form a chessboard pattern, where the building distribution is intertwined with urban gardens, plazas and the overall park system.

Urban-rural synergetic complementarities, attained through the intimate connection between horticultural areas and urban park areas, using a shared usage approach to unite the differentiated areas in one: the waterfront lake river, urban park areas as welcoming, informal facilities areas and the visitor centre to indicate the door of the park, the market-space as source for programs, visits and education.

An offset of the existing park limits moves the road away from the main water channel and creates a mixed urban area, where the buildings blend with the green and the water surroundings. The urban life belongs in the park: users leave the car in the parking area, walk through the gardens between the buildings, enter the park and discover the main channel. The pathway is an experience, a discovery and an appropriation of places.

The design aims to rebuild the community’s connection with the water, which is meant to (re)discovery the landscape’s intrinsic value, not only as ecological and environmental wealth, but also as a useful and pleasant infrastructure that promotes the safe and comfortable enjoyment of a wide variety of uses.

The adequate management of one of the interpretations – the landscape as part of a dynamic group of water dependent systems – implies the adequate management of another – the landscape as a support for a more beneficial, efficient and sustainable human occupation.

The circulation and transportation systems must share the same harmonic continuity. Infrastructure is, henceforth, a part of the landscape and a fundamental element in the configuration of its perception, in the awaking of a collective conscience of the territory of support, where its layout, connectivity and rhythm of established connections are fundamental parameters of this construction.

The creation of a public park requires ensuring public access to a portion of land; it means setting into action – in the more or less immediate future – the collective appropriation of a large area of land for recreational purposes; to acknowledge as fundamental the possibility of offering the population a space for rest and leisure activities; it means that its importance depends on the population for whom it is designed, their benefits and how it improves their quality of life.

Public parks directly relate to people and their lives, so their design involves good communication with and understanding of its potential users needs and wants. It requires reconciling different conceptions based on diverse age groups, social and cultural backgrounds. It requires invoking the place’s historic significance and history and the unveiling of the site’s more or less obvious particularities. And it also requires the possibility of its discovery, acknowledging the marvelous feelings that a person can develop in a relationship with a place. For these reasons, the design process of creating a park must be centered around, and begin with, the people in mind.

Creating a space for a specific group of people can shape their way of life and enhance the everyday reality of the community, as a stage for happy moments but also a measurable, palpable improvement in a physical portion of the world.

• All architecture offices involved in the design:
OBRAS Architectes
MetaSoft360 (Yra Ipi)
Class Construction
ARK

• Other credits:
Lufti Stermasi