RE-IMAGINING E-87

from RK

by renikoycheva

66 BARING ST

- O1 -

RE-IMAGINING E-87

Academic Work / Feb 2021

LOCATION E-87 Road, Burgas, Bulgaria

TYPE Public realm / Temporality / Collaborative urbanism / Cities for people

BRIEF The design objective is to investigate and propose a strategy for the E-87 Road as a whole and design a series of temporary interventions. The public realm in contemporary cities needs to be re-purposed to prioritize the relationship between people and everyday life rather than being primarily to accommodate the movement of cars.

PROJECT SUMMARY The project aims to re-imagine a main road in the city of Burgas and re-connect the divided areas alongside by reconsidering the urban traffic and the human scale. The three interventions - a Floating Walkway, a Lake-Sea Sidewalk and accessing a Birdwatching centre, respond to the environmental emergency which we are facing nowadays by making sites within nature enjoyable, accessible and safe for people. This aims to focus on improving people’s well-being in the midst of a pandemic and raises important questions on protecting nature.

TUTORS: Riccardo Marini, Loris Rossi “Designing a dream city is easy; rebuilding a living one takes imagination.” - Jane Jacobs

The Floating Walkway - a collage response to site 1 (Intervention 1) The collage was produced with site photography & Photoshop and was inspired by the art installation of Christo & Jean-Claude.

A quick sketch of the initial idea for Intervention 1 An isometric drawing exploring the build-up of the floatin walkway device

Site visit from a citizen point of view

During this site visit I wanted to explore how citizens can access the Nature Conservation centre by using public transport. So after taking the bus which stops 500m away from the centre, I found out many other challenges for getting to the site. In fact, it was life threatening and almost impossible. Here are my observations:

1 2 3 4

Getting out of the bus, just to realise that it is impossible to cross the road to the other side where the Birdwatching centre is located. (non-humane) After waiting patiently for 10 minutes to cross, there was unfortunate evidence of the dangers that this road brings. (time-demanding, highly dangerous, non-inclusive) A lane that is supposed to be used from both people and cyclists. (dangerous, non-inclusive) Moreover, there are falling rocks and no protection from them! (dangerous, non-inclusive)

According to the ‘Average walking speed by age’ information, it is impossible for humans and non-humans to cross such road where cars move with a speed of over 90km/h. Thus, the point of the third intervention is to provide a safer journey and bring the attention to the many challenges that non-drivers face on daily basis.