On April 15-22, we held a competition to collect ideas for the daylighting the Valga’s Pepper stream. The competition received 14 submissions. Thank you to all the participants! The three awarded works will be determined as a result of public and jury voting. Below is the competition task.
In the wake of modern times, many progressive cities buried the streams and rivers that witnessed their birth. Today, forward looking municipalities are opening the once culverted waterways, bringing them back to life. With this idea competition, we invite (landscape) architects, ecologists, urbanists and artists to imagine the possibilities of unearthed urban streams.
Valga, located on the border of southern Estonia, is a small town full of streams and springs, where the murmur of water can be heard in several places. But like in many other cities, several creeks and streams have been channelled into underground pipes in the last century which is why they have lost a large part of their variety of life. The municipality has now taken the direction of opening city streams and restoring them as ecologically abundant habitats.
The competition seeks to collect spatial visions for daylighting the Pepper stream (Pipraoja), which runs through the centre of Valga, with the aim of emphasising its presence in the cityscape, making it an attractive recreation area for people and enhancing the variety of life found there. Participants are expected to propose a landscape concept and trajectory for the stream and/or small-scale architectural interventions which would create meeting points for humans and various other life forms to be found near the streams.
→The competition period is April 15-22.
→ Submit 3 images (illustration, plans, schemes, etc) and a text.
→ Three winners will receive monetary prizes 3×500€.
The competition is part of the ‘Flock of Ideas’ series of idea competitions. The competition is organised by Valga Architecture Residency VARES in cooperation with the Latvian idea competition platform TANDEEMS, Valga municipality and Valga Vesi.
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Below is a small gallery from a summery Monday, when, as a part of the competition programme, we went on a stream tracking expedition with local fifth graders.
