2. Mansiyon, Budva Kıyı Bandı Düzenleme Yarışması

OpenAct Architecture, Budva Kıyı Bandı Düzenleme Yarışması'nda 2. Mansiyon ödülü kazandı.

A front for the future
Nestled between the diverse territories of mountainous Montenegrin terrains and the vast Adriatic; the riparian corridors and the marine ecosystems, the sprawling urbanscape and the steep rocky cliffs, Budva Bay’s continual interactions within this contextual multiplicity transpires a myriad of multilayered socio-ecological encounters reconciling natural and human spheres. Its role as a mediating interface between contrasting terrestrial and aquatic morphologies not only incites biodiverse ecological life in Budva, but also, in urban form giving rise to a multitude of socio-cultural encounters.

As one of the oldest settlements of the Adriatic coast, Budva’s unique natural position and geography instigated the bay as a space of constant natural transformation yet of outstanding permanence, enduring and witnessing through time, becoming the common heritage of natural and human artifacts, and perpetually connecting the heterogeneous and diverse ecosystems, history, ethnicity, culture, civilization, and architecture. However, with an urban form stretching along the coast, Budva Bay is under pronounced pressures of urbanization with attempts to manipulate and tame the natural resources into densely constructed environments. While these interventions pose a threat to the unique biodiversity of the territory, they also interfere with the natural dynamics rendering the urban areas vulnerable against climatic changes. Although, these Anthropocenic tendencies are similar in other Mediterranean coastal cities, Budva distinctly still inhabits the eminent presence of its immaculate nature, and offer exceptional opportunities and learnings from its thousands years of history to explore new modes co-creation and co-habitation with nature for 21st century coastal urbanscapes.

While the long-lasting and preserved character of Budva connects the multilayered historical fabric and the collective stories of the city, its natural resources nurture an entire ecosystem within its coastal territory. As part of the northern Adriatic chain of mountains, streams, bays, and with its unique offshore reef Tunja, Budva Bay is a vital originator in Montenegro’s Adriatic coast. Montenegro with its distinct geological base, landscape, climate and soil; as well as the geo-position on the Balkan peninsula and the Adriatic Sea holds the highest recorded floristic and faunal biodiversity unit index values of Europe, placing Montenegro among the top of the Mediterranean, European and world biodiversity. However, the effects of urbanization disrupting the intertwined systems of nature results a coastal city prone to climate change impacts with frequent windy storms flooding Budva shores even the coastal streets, rising sea levels, coastal erosion and limited sediment support from the streams. As a potent component of this ecosystem and a robust riviera, Budva embodies and exhibits both the opportunities and the threats of this coastal landscape prompting to rethink urban relationship to nature.

The key to respond the main quest of designing ways to re-establish and re-question the relationship of the coast and the city in Budva, specifically lays in the learnings from thousands of years of human existence and centuries old experiences in this unique geography. With its ramparts as the main framework, Old Town Budva achieved to create an enduring living atmosphere right on the edge of the shore. Embracing this specific learning as an offering, the project probes exploration and reinterpretation of Budva’s historic front and its relationship with the sea to design for its future front. Interpreting the past experiences to restore the broken socio-ecological relationships, the projects re-reads the historic front within 21st century ecopolitical approach and concentrates on discovering non-invasive socio-ecological encounters while intervening in this extremely valuable natural environment; it aims to develop socio-cultural density without being necessarily urban; and envisions to provide a mutually harmonized common habitat balancing human use, ecological processes and natural preservation.

Historic front to create Future Front
The coast of Budva is a is the linear interface where the complex territorial and marine ecosystems converge. It is the line where the rivers and streams meandering through mountains and the city meet the marine life of Adriatic, as well as the forests of the hills with the extensive meadows of the seabed. Disrupted by impermeable urban surfaces, channeled riverbeds, and constructed areas close to the dunes, this multitude of encounters suffer from discontinuity of natural systems causing coastal erosion, loss of biodiversity, water pollution, sediment loss, and sea water infiltration to the city. Aspiring to mitigate these effects, the project examines and reinterprets the historic front for protection, restoration and activation.

While the ramparts of the historic front as a defense structure provided protection, they also generated the main framework encapsulating the town; while walkways on top of it allowed extended vistas, they also enabled interaction with the land and the sea; while its stone composition devised a sturdy infrastructure, it also blended with the rocky cliffs around and provided small habitats in its nooks and niches for various species. Learning from the historical front, the project manifests the promenade of Budva Bay as a protective, restorative and active ecological infrastructure, a front for long-lasting sustainable future.
Reinterpreting the behavioral features of the historic front through generative landscapes based on cycles, processes and flows that result in different forms and formats of interaction with coastal dynamics, the strategy focuses restoration of coastal dune systems as the main spatial framework of the promenade providing a natural barrier, minimized impacts on natural environment; and intents to be unobtrusive as possible to avoid adulteration of the natural components of the area offering an abundance of nature-based socio-cultural recreation opportunities including water and beach sports, fishing, geocaching, hiking, biking, nature education, diving, trail running, play areas, swimming, climbing, rappelling, birding, resting and looking-out points. A range from green buffer zones to sandy dunes and aquatic areas offers the natural background for these socio-cultural and active recreational public programs.

These eco-spatial scenarios can guarantee socially, economically and ecologically sustainable future for Budva Bay, regarding this coastal city not only locally and regionally but even globally, a case study of incorporation of natural ecosystems and nature-based public activities right in front of the city.

An integrative framework for nature-based co-creation
Augmenting socio-ecological encounters at the intersection of the human natural spheres, the proposed reinvention of the seafront is based on the idea of the coastline as a dynamic, adaptive and complex system through restoration of Budva’s coastal dune system as a natural barrier. The project reframes this linear coastal interface by introducing eco-functional gradience zones of the dune system. Each ecological zone in this gradience from sea to the city operates differently but cohesively, the opportunities and constraints offered by each zone also prompt different yet integrative design solutions.

Located between the stable dune and the foredune, the coastal promenade becomes the main framework systematically defining methods of co-existing on every level and layer from program to circulation and ecological restoration. Establishing the range of eco-functional zones of the coast as the basis to guide the design proposal, the coastal promenade is the cumulative superimposition of each strategic intervention layer. These interventions have been grouped into three layers of strategies: Ecological Front, Connected Front, and Active Front. These strategic layers synthesize the priorities of Budva Bay and illustrate a vision to enable eco-spatial conditions, socio-ecological interactions and an active public realm promoting systems of reconciliation, adaptability, resiliency while creating an eco-political project that inclusively evolves with natural dynamics; it becomes not a project of passive preservation and re-naturalization, but of characterization and symbiotic activation.

Referanslar

1. “With some 3,250 plant species, floristic diversity of Montenegro is among the highest in the region. Country’s S/A index1 for vascular plants is 0.837 – the highest recorded value in all the European countries. A total of 223 endemic plant species and subspecies have been registered. Density index for the birds nesting in Montenegro is 0.557, which is well above the Balkans average of 0.435. Specific agro-biodiversity of the country also represents an important quality.”
   The Fifth National Report to the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. Ministry of Sustainable Development and Tourism of Montenegro, 2014, p.11.
2. The Framework of the Assessment of general vulnerability of the coastal zone of MNE, CAMP MNE (2012), and Vulnerability assessment of the narrow coastal zone, CAMP MNE (2013).