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Parc Disponible / Stefan Gzyl

07
Sep 2010
By Sebastian J
— Filed under:
Misc , France,
Paris, Stefan
Gzyl

Courtesy of
Stefan Gzyl

Stefan Gzyl
shared with us
his project
“Parc
Disponible”,
one of the
finalists on an
international
competition
recently held in Paris on ways to incorporate nature into the urban environment in original ways.
“Parc Disponible” is a glass box enclosing a mini-park for individual use within the city. See
more images and architect’s description after the break.

Courtesy of Stefan Gzyl

Precedent
The urban park
is a modern
invention. It is
the response to
a particular
need that
emerged with
and within the
industrial city.
Its
implementation
was destined to
satisfy specific
recreational,
hygienic, social
and economic
requirements of the city and its population. These conditions generated a new kind of public
space. In the XX century, the quantification of nature (the establishment of an ideal ratio of built
to natural within the urban environment) determined a proportional relation between park and
city: the larger and more populated the city, the bigger and more numerous the parks. The size of
the urban park was determined by the number of people it had to serve; its ultimate purpose, to
provide a means of escape from the city within the city, determined its relation to the urban
context: one of mutual exclusion. According to this logic, the insertion of the park always
constitutes an interruption of the city’s fabric: it is either park or city, but never both.

Courtesy of Stefan Gzyl

Proposal
Traditionally, the urban park is always inserted as a discontinuity of the built order, read in plan
and experienced in three-dimensional space as a piece of land subtracted from the city for the
simulation of a “natural” order. Yet in the conditions of the contemporary city, an ever-
increasing need for green space is met with a decreasing availability of open land. This project
proposes an extreme solution within the parameters of the competition: a park-for-one, a garden
for individual and private relaxation and the momentary break from the urban environment,
opening the senses to the intensified stimulation of nature in a simulated ecosystem of 15 square
meters. In other words, the project attempts to repeat the operation of subtraction of urban fabric
and its replacement with “nature” at the scale of a small capsule. Like an oasis in a desert (a
secluded, self-contained and self-sufficient environment surrounded by dry land) this
experimental green space is isolated from the city by dense vegetation and fully enclosed in
glass.

Courtesy of Stefan Gzyl

Membership
Just like there are public telephones, WC cabins, velib or metro stations strategically located
around the city, there can exist a network of mini-parks that can be used for a maximum of 30
minutes by any member with an access card. Simply sign up online to get your card. Log on to
check availability of a park near you. Swipe your card and walk inside, leave the city behind. Sit
back and enjoy the fresh air. This condensed garden, a park for one, provides a momentary pause
from the city within the city.

Performance
The urban oasis serves the double function of individual leisure and environmental device. Each
glass box can capture and retain rainwater, use it for irrigation, filter and return the rest to the
city’s water supply, as well as filter and purify city air. Sealed glass and a system of mechanical
louvers control temperature, creating a microclimate that guarantees a green space 365 days a
year.

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