White Flowers Boulevard is a public space in Kazan on Absalyamov Street. It was designed by Project Group 8 together with locals. The architects formed a landscape and planted more than 1,000 large trees and perennial bushes.
Residents, local communities, teachers, and students from a nearby school took part in all of the various stages of the project. The architects call such an approach “participatory planning.” The key events of the design process were two large city-wide meetings which discussed the drafting of the design and the preliminary concept.
The area was built up with standard panel houses in the early 2000s. Residents really wanted the boulevard to acquire its own identity. The name ‘White Flowers’ originates from the iconic novel by the classic Tatar writer Abdurakhman Absalyamov, after whom the street is named. The project has many references to the legacy of Absalyamov, Tatar literature, and Kazan culture of the 1960s.
The new boulevard is located on the site of a former parking lot. Previously, there was no pedestrian route from houses to bus stops and the school. Therefore there was a constant conflict between cars and pedestrians which created a dangerous environment.
The authors of the project revised the standard concept of a boulevard as a linear pedestrian space.
The architects wanted to create a home-like atmosphere at the boulevard since it would serve as a local space for residents rather than a city park. There is a square with a cafe, a fountain with a canopy, and a recreational ‘living room’ zone with parquet, floor lamps, and cozy furniture.
Read the full article on LILA – Landezine International Landscape Award.
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