BOZNER PLATZ

Urban Design: Mina Yaney
Associate: Nikolaus Hellmayr

Planning: 07-10/2020

Many of our current public spaces arise from a modern rationale in which an urban district or a building is conceived as an object or as a container. In the design of the Bozner Square in Innsbruck, we proposed to transform the square from a monocausal container to a polydimensional fabric. As such it integrates different contextual elements into the urban configuration and hence defines a holistic integrative structure.

In order to give the Bozner square the structural openness that makes it a complex and diverse living space we created a kind of eversion of the pre-existing urban configuration. With this simple operation, the axes of the square are crossed while converting the urban space from a container to a fabric-like configuration.

The fountain becomes part of the structure and transformed form an inanimate center to a vivid structural element. The Rudolfs-Fountain no longer remains a lifeless monument and sign of a bygone historical era but is integrated into the structure of the square.

Additionally different programmatic contexts have been integrated into the square: 1) An interactive orientation and informational layer guiding inhabitants an tourists, via signs and screens, to major cultural events and buildings 2) Multifunctional areas for markets, concerts and exhibitions 3) seating areas with integrated drinking fountains 4) a children’s playground

The fountain’s colours are used as a reference for the gradient of the square’s surface design. Water is allowed to spread while creating interactive areas. The play of the elements shapes the place as a hybrid of different aggregation states: the hard stone, the soft grass and the floating water.