Colonizing ghosts of urbanization. Public space in a post-soviet context

The project focuses on a colonization of existing abandoned facilities located along the coastal park of Liepaja, Latvia. It introduces a new system connecting the neglected areas hidden in the green strip of Liepaja's shore and represents the solution with a specific example of revitalization performed on the misused sports equipment and a ruin of unfinished construction site in its proximity. The proposal is a landscape project for an open space working on different levels and pronounced by a juxtaposition of different layers of privacy and materiality. Thanks to fluid movement of the soil and a new scheme for the vegetation disposition the project forms a new condition in a post-soviet neighbourhood permitting to host there a camping site, new leisure and sports areas, kitchen garden and facilities for both: tourists and inhabitants. The site becomes a missing link between what is hard, concrete-made soviet urban environment and soft, natural, wet and grassy ecosystem of the coastal park, dunes and beach along the sea shore. This connection is tend to be read by the materials used in 'colonization'- from a concrete public street, through a corten elevated walkway to wooden paths, as well as by the geometry of the space forming new bidirectional passages: within the neighbourhood and between the town and the shore. Finally, respecting the soviet heritage of Liepaja, the project proposes new, raw, concrete forms to host the necessary services for each function. The project's aim is to enhance the interest into the post-soviet public spaces and approximate a feasible, sustainable solution for improving the quality of the ones examined in Liepaja, hoping to influence positively the quality of life in the post-soviet neighbourhood.