FREE MÜHLGANG
TEAM:
© MONICA LAMELA BLAZQUEZ, RAQUEL RUIZ, VIOLETA ORDOÑEZ
Winner of Europan16 urban design competition.
FREE MÜHLGANG unearths the traces of the past to reveal through a process of erosion the stories, events, and people(s) that have been forgotten, excluded, and silenced. The history of Graz is closely tied to the Mühlgang: an artificial canal that was an essential urban infrastructure and has now become an othered space, encaged and out of reach. Our proposal liberates the Mühlgang, recovering it for the city and its citizens through an inclusive public green-blue corridor that links the existing parks—Volksgarten and Oeverseepark—with our site, turning what are now two isolated intermezzos along an otherwise inaudible, untouchable, and invisible waterway, into an immersive detour along the Mühlgang.
The resulting landscape, materialized through the HINGE permeable building and WATEREVER wetland, becomes a statement for inclusive architectures that engage a wide range of actors to inhabit, transform and enhance a new vision for the city of Graz and its neighborhoods.