THE FOREST
Basic information
Project Title
Full project title
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Project Description
Going along the central street in the city Valmiera, a rather unusual picture opens up - at some point, the pedestrian is at the level with the tops of the trees. Then, as we look into the recess, a forest reveals itself.
A large, overheated, asphalted area has transformed into a beautiful, growing park with big trees and a scenic environment. This is the city park, made for real-life interactions where lovers of the action sport converge with everyone and within the urban area. It is THE FOREST
Geographical Scope
Project Region
Urban or rural issues
Physical or other transformations
EU Programme or fund
Which funds
Description of the project
Summary
Initially, on the side of Valmieras main street, opposite the youth leisure centre, in an area of 11,152 km2 on a large asphalt court, there were separate unattractive wooden elements of a skate park, basketball, a fenced children's playground with sand flooring and some amenity elements. The residents of Valmiera complained that the area had an intense heat island effect during the summer.
As the area is in a widely accessible public location, it was essential to develop it as a component of an integrated urban infrastructure for the city's wellbeing. Therefore, the city developers wished to provide even more effective active recreational and free sports opportunities and an exciting and attractive leisure environment for visitors of every age in the meantime.
The name FOREST of the regenerated area has not been chosen accidentally: the new park is a territory of great abundance, inviting the city's most lively street to forget about the daily rush.
The park is an area that combines a wide variety of activities and opportunities for free interaction:
- a broader, more comfortable, safer and more interesting multiple-level skating park with a concrete covering is still living in the park;
- the pump track offers possibilities for scooters, roller-skaters, skateboarders and cyclists of all ages and different levels of skills. The asphalted track compiles both BMX Park and the more popular BMX Street elements;
- the park has an area with stands and a portable streetball court, children and teenagers playground and outdoor exercise elements, even a ping-pong table, a picnic area and amenities for the convenience of visitors.
The park is built on citizens' and action sports activists' advice and modern urban planning traditions to create a liveable symbiosis environment.
Key objectives for sustainability
Before the regeneration, the area was a vast asphalted area creating a heat island during the summer, having no amenities for its visitors, and negatively impacting the environment.
By creating the sports and active recreation park FOREST, the aims in sustainability were to develop a green park within the urban environment that would absorb CO2 and generate oxygen, creating a shadow for its visitors and a feeling of being close to nature.
The sustainability objectives were achieved in the project through the following actions:
- the asphalted area was transformed into a green park with plants and big trees to avoid the heat island effect. A separate greenery plan was developed in the regeneration project to do this.
- In order not to create a load for the city's central rainwater sewer and ensure the wetting of natural park plants, rainwater is discharged locally in a rain garden. Water bio-enteral with a setback in the middle of the beds is in the park's centre.
- There are no designed parking places for cars in the park to avoid contributing to additional CO2 emissions, having bicycle stands instead.
- The park's outdoor facilities (e.g. benches, garbage boxes, bicycle stands, etc.) have been selected when assessing the park's overall image. Throughout the park, there is a transfixed unifying tone reflected in the details of all park elements.
- The park is equipped with energy-efficient LED lighting.
- To avoid contamination with microplastic, the park's playground coverings and plantings are made of pine bark mulch.
- The valid soil layer was removed and stored undamaged for further use during the construction.
- The park features a tap for free drinking water. In addition, a water pipeline, an accessible WC and a connection to the central sewer were installed.
- Several garbage bins for sorted waste are placed on the site to promote the waste sorting culture among young people.
Key objectives for aesthetics and quality
The residents of Valmiera had regularly expressed the need for a modern skating park for the municipality. The most suitable place for such a skatepark was where the existing skating elements were located. However, it was important for the city to see the functionality of the future sports and active recreation park as a scenic and architectural part of the urban environment addressing environmental and social challenges in the meanwhile.
The park's outdoor facilities (e.g. benches, garbage boxes, bicycle stands, etc.) have been selected when assessing the park's overall image. Throughout the park, there is a transfixed unifying tone reflected in the details of all park elements. Outdoor furniture is designed to visually match the city's image - fine enough but durable materials to ensure endurance and sustainability in recreational and sports development.
Park plants have been selected according to Latvian climate, urban conditions, variability of decorations throughout the different seasons. Plants and trees in the most intensive sports areas have been selected according to the requirements of the active environment. For the safe functioning of tracks, trees with relatively few fallen autumn leaves and pines of different species have been used. The green islands adjacent to the bike and the skate tracks are supplemented with decorative deciduous trees, which excel the background of coniferous trees with various spring and autumn leaf colours. Children's playgrounds and outdoor exercise areas are spatially separated by trees and shrub plantations groups. The assortment of shrubs for this part of the park is variable and exciting so that the youngest visitors to the park have something to learn. Plants that bloom before the leaves flourish, plants with brightly coloured branches and atypical foliage or with edible berries. Groups of trees of the same species create a sense of grove and make a desire to sit in the shade of tree crowns.
Key objectives for inclusion
Until the implementation of the project, the young people of Valmiera did not have a modern space in the urban environment created following their interests and needs. Due to the few facilities for active sports and the lack of more extensive amenities, the skate park often became a place for disagreements, disputes, even hooliganism. Furthermore, it was difficult for young people who identify with active sports and activities outside the framework of classic sports to find a place for their lifestyle in the city. Therefore, the virtual environment on smartphones was much more tempting, which strengthened the social isolation of young people.
Development of sport and active recreational park THE FOREST reincarnated the public importance of the site. It resolved the need for a dynamic recreational environment for young people in an architectonically modern and organic manner. The diversity of activities, specific particular facilities of action sports, individuality and intimacy while feeling belonging and appreciated were vital for them and were resolved within the project.
These challenges were resolved by including solutions in the park's territory to meet the needs of different social groups. There are zones for active sports, sports elements for overall physical activities, a playing area for the smallest visitors, various public events, stands and picnic areas.
Despite the complicated terrain, the park is fully accessible also for people with functional disabilities.
The park has been created as a destination for high-quality time. It brings together people who can interact and deal with each others' activities. Thus, this environment stimulates people to turn away from virtual reality and focus on natural, live interaction and unity in diversity instead.
Results in relation to category
Sports and active recreation park FOREST was put into service in the fall of 2021. It was widely visited in all its zones. Freestyle BMX drivers appreciate that the park has everything they need for active time: a vast space for sport and facilities, free access to drinking water, and plenty of room to sit down. There are many pipes and tubes on which you can jump and run. The park has both BMX Park elements and proportionally more BMX Street elements, given its popularity over BMX Park. Table tennis is an atypical element in these kinds of parks. It was also included for making THE FOREST more attractive to different interests.
Regeneration of the area has achieved its original goal. The interviewed professionals of action sport acknowledge that this is one of Latvia's best projects of this type. An equivalent park can only be found in the capital. People from other cities show interest in visiting this park as their destination for active sports.
The park is interesting for different generations and visitors who do not perform action sports. Visitors of the children's playground can watch the sports zones' activities and participate in their interests later on.
On the other side of the central city street, a youth centre is located. And to promote the acquisition of safe and complete skills in action sport, the youth centre launched a unique interest education programme on "Extreme sports" from this school year on. The new park will also become this programme's training and practising site as early as spring. The programme is run by a certified skating coach, a woman. The program offers the opportunity to learn basic skills in skateboard, roller skaters, cycling.
How Citizens benefit
Every year, the local government carries out a public survey on the development needs, providing essential information for planning municipal development priorities. These yearly municipal surveys mentioned the need for an active sports park.
In early 2019, in cooperation with We Build Parks, a company representing the action sports infrastructure sector, a development vision and a park zoning conception were developed for the area.
Then, in February 2019, the municipality organised an exchange of ideas with its residents on what elements are needed in a modern sport and active recreation park. Nearly 100 questionnaires were completed with recommendations and ideas. In addition, telephone and face-to-face consultations with pro-active sports lifestyles professionals on specific infrastructure elements were made. Consultations with neighbouring service providers on their vision for the area's development were carried out.
The screening of the population made it possible to identify the most significant shortcomings of the current facilities: overheating of the site, lack of shading, insufficient lighting. Therefore, in the park greening plan, particular emphasis was placed on shading and tree plantations solutions. The establishment of park areas and the elements in each of its zones, as far as possible, covers and combines all proposals made by local inhabitants.
Now that the park has been completed, site development in the picnic area is still possible. There is still space for additional elements or plants, in line with later initiatives and suggestions from the population or municipality.
Physical or other transformations
Innovative character
Action sports have recently been included in the Olympics. And skateparks for practising are often constructed as specific facility elements in a given area. However, the development of such tracks tends to contradict these sports' nature. Primarily, they are a lifestyle rather than a sport. Therefore, they tend not to require a specific route or facility. They need an appropriate environment for performing within the city, instead. Therefore innovative practice within this project targets urban planning, which simultaneously fulfils other social functions and meets the conditions required by the action sports enthusiasts. The innovative character of this regeneration project was the transformation of an asphalted square into a multi-functional park - the city's natural area called THE FOREST - that has action sports as the essential social function.
Learning transferred to other parties
The project implementers have the following key conclusions:
- The best solution for successfully integrating metropolitan lifestyle adherents into the urban ecosystem is a complex approach in creating the urban environment in line with the action sports requirements. This approach meets the particular lifestyle needs and ensures the dignity of the action sports adherents within the community.
- When meeting with Valmiera city residents, sport and active recreation park THE FOREST is assessed positively. The local government explains the upbeat assessment with the initial successful involvement of the population in identifying the development needs of the site. It was done by conducting an annual citizens' survey on local development priorities and pinpointing citizens' expectations about the challenges to be addressed in the area and the specific elements of activities to be included in the park.
- The sustainability of the park's development is ensured by its linkage to the neighbouring youth centre, which offers an educational course for extreme sports, the adjacent bicycle shop and rental and the judo school.
