Submission: January 9, 2014
Registration: January 9, 2014
Language: English
Location: Vlora, Albania
Prizes: 1st Prize € 10.000 2nd Prize € 5.000 3rd Prize € 3.000 Local Prize € 5.000
Type: Open competition for architects and architecture students
Atelier Albania, invited by the Ministry of Urban Development and Tourism and the City of Vlora, is launching an international one-stage urban design competition, to design the Waterfront Promenade in Vlora, Albania.
The aim is to introduce a way of intervening by design in the upgrading of the City Waterfront Promenade. The intervention will be of an urban upgrade nature and will be based on the surface application of urban furnishing elements and upgrading network infrastructure throughout the site of intervention. This will be marked by a strong linear and continues structure like the promenade itself, which will be partly implemented.
The Waterfront Promenade is composed of two segments. The port as a hinge that connects or stands in-between. These two segments are facing two totally different urban conditions. Therefore, they have very different identity and should be approached in a different way. They can respectively be named as the West Segment (Old Beach Area, west of port) and South Segment (New Beach Promenade, south of port).
The South Segment is a narrow one but very well defined, between the sea and the main street. This segment connects the city to the touristic Ionian region. It is not under very fine urban conditions, even though it already has some sub-segments that offer different programs that are mostly used especially during the long Ionian summer. This segment has gained some extra space lately due to the fact that certain buildings are cleared out, giving back the public space to the city.Therefore, the whole set of sub-segments need to be integrated, harmonized and upgraded in terms of urban furnishing elements and existing underground infrastructure network. This will constitute the short term intervention (first phase).
While, on the other hand the West Segment is wider and sandy, facing traditionally touristic structures as well as residential high-rise structures. This newly built structures have not a designed urban border or an urban element as a mediator.The intervention in this segment will be to introduce the promenade and to define the urban border that will connect the sandy/ beach area to the urbanized area. The underground infrastructure network of this segment has to be introduced and integrated with the rest of the system. This will constitute the long term intervention (second phase)
