Like a month ago I participated in competition for park reconstruction. It had really restricted and strait rules, short deadline and many requirements. But I spent in this park a lot of my childhood and really wanted to help find new expression for it.

Astrakhan is the city with unique nature, history and culture. It is situated in Russia, on the south, in the delta of the river Volga. And the park is placed in the centre of the city.

The climate of the territory is continental and has several negatives factors: strong wind, hot summer and relatively cold winter, very low humidity in summer. So my decisions for these problems are below: wind and sun screens, tents, good shading by nature and architectural objects, usage of water ponds, fountains and vapour sprinklers.

The nature has also it’s special features: salt ground with high subterranean waters, monotonic relief and small variety of plants and trees that can survive in such conditions. So the main decision is to do draining systems, create artificial relief and chose contrast trees forms and colours.

The concept of the park design is based on the figure of Volgo-Akhtuba floodplain that has two main rivers and many other inflows, flowing in Caspian sea. The same way two main pedestrian flows joint and form the entrance zone in the park. there are also smaller tracks that separate and joint these two main streams and create pedestrian motion system.

The theatre plays the city role on the bank of the river.

Some visualisations of park concept is below.