Competition Litomerice | Vítor Leal Barros

The proposal stems from a careful interpretation of the urban fabric of the city of Litomerice, understanding its development throughout history and pointing out solutions for a sustainable growth, from the formal, spatial and cultural points of view. A city with the scale and size of Litomerice may functions from its core, where all the main services and identitary spatial elements are concentrated, but should preview in its growth new centralities able to survive by their own, fairly independent from the city’s heart. The proposed design points to the development of a satellite centrality, cooperative, but at the same time self-sufficient. Its design seeks above all the multifunctional character of the intervention area, avoiding the constraints intrinsic to the extremely sectorization of cities, that forces daily migrations of its inhabitants.
The urban design respects the existing spatial structure; enhances buildings with historical value or sufficiently versatile and adaptable to new functions; recovers and reorganizes the green spaces, adapting them to the cultural and heritage values of the local people; proposing at the same time new urban typologies born by the specific formal memories of the place, in which the new ‘line houses’ and ‘loft houses’ are a paradigmatic example (old military warehouses transformed into new residential typologies).
A former closed area is returned to the city. Walkways, squares and plazas are now guiding people into the city and it’s surrounding landscape, respecting their tradition and cultural values. All the necessary equipment’s were created in order to guarantee the self-sufficient functioning of the area and its close surroundings. Especially, the intent of the proposal was to escape from the ‘suburbia’ concept. Instead of creating a new strictly prime residential area (laying completely on the city infrastructures), the proposal aims to be cooperative but slightly independent from the city. Every single inhabitant of the proposal can live, work and enjoy cultural and leisure facilities in a 500 m radius. One does not need the car or the public transport system in its daily routine, even though it is possible to do it easily. This is the model of city that the proposal aims to materialize; this is improving people’s lifestyle.