Mandaworks and Hosper Sweden win urban design competition for Trenčín, Slovakia

The historic City of Trenčín in Slovakia continues to progress towards modernization with the recent conclusion of its Tracing Trenčín competition. Entrants from around the world proposed urban design ideas that would best improve the city center's connectivity to the Váh River and make use of the space from  the relocation of the City's primary railway track.

Out of 59 proposals, longtime collaborators Mandaworks and Hosper Sweden won first place with a 30,000 Euro prize. Their conceptual design will serve as the basis for the central urban area's master plan.

Check it out below.

Project description:

"Trencin is one city of many that is built in the Vah River basin. Since the 1930s the River Vah has become increasingly engineered and controlled to ensure the safety and protection of settlements along its banks. This has resulted in a city that has turned its back to an uninviting river landscape. 

Our proposal resurrects the natural character of the River by bending the straight engineered levee walls to create a soft, pliable and programmed edge, while retaining its protective function."

"This new levee landscape connects the south side of the river to the strong tissue of the historic city of Trencin, by extending its long, narrow block structure to develop a network of shiming and unique plazas, squares, streets and riverfront promenades.

The southern waterfront forms a sequence of active recreational public spaces, maximizing the use of the dynamics of the water landscape."

"Through the transformed railway bridge a strong and programmed connection is made from the dynamic south embankment to  the more extensive landscape of the northern river bed."

"An ecological centre acts as a central info and meeting point within extensive wetlands and water buffering areas. Within this system a Super Dike is created, which combines water protection with new housing and parking and a vivid urban balcony towards the river and the historic city."

Project credits

"TRACING TRENČÍN" included the following participants: Martin Arfalk, Patrick Verhoeven, Andrei Deacu, Danny Bridson, Maria Gregorio Puig, Carlos Dias, Nicholas Bigelow, and Chuhan Zhang.

Image courtesy of Mandaworks and Hosper Sweden.

Click the thumbnails below to see more project images.