Párovské Lúky: leading example for future urbanization
How do you envision a sustainable development of the Párovské Lúky area that embraces biodiversity, climate, wellbeing and equity? That question was the focus of the first PLUS Change co-creation session for the area of Nitra in Slovakia.
Nitra is part of PLUS Change for a reason: climate change is having an increasing impact on the city and the surrounding area, including the people, animals, and plants living there. For the first co-creation session, the focus was chosen to be on Párovské Lúky, an unused, wet piece of land just across the river of Nitra City.
Why Párovské Lúky?
Since 2020, Nitra has been seriously working on a master plan for the city, a new vision to be designed between 2024 and 2026. The master plan will create the frameworks and conditions for what needs to happen over the next ten to fifteen years to better develop the area in and around Nitra. There was an open call for architects and designers to design the city of the future with a number of conditions to be met, including:
– room to house 20,000 – 30,000 people affordable (rental) homes;
– More recreational green space;
– The river should become a central element, while addressing water retention challenges;
– The city’s ambitions to connect ecological networks and to make the transition to sustainable mobility should be included in the plan.
By 2026, the final master plan should be ready. During this co-creation session, the idea arose to present the input from the session to the final three contenders bidding to create the master plan, so that they can include the ideas in their proposals.
The wet and partly unused area of Párovské Lúky plays a key role in the development of this master plan for Nitra City. The area is big enough to build a new city quarter and is located just five minutes by bike from the city center of Nitra. So, it’s basically an empty playground to experiment on and develop the city of the future.
A group of knowledge partners was assembled including someone from the municipality, three (!) generations of the city’s chief architects, urban planners, environmentalists, conservation organisations, an NGO, university researchers and a journalist. Together they discussed the question: how do you envision a sustainable development of the Párovské Lúky area that embraces biodiversity, climate, well-being and equality?
Are you serious?
During the first round of the co-creation session, participants answered that question from their own expertise. However, from discussing those different visions it immediately became clear how eager everyone was to think creatively. For instance, one of the participants, an environmentalist no less, suggests turning a part of the area into a big aqua park with swimming pools and slides. ‘Then people won’t have to drive so far out of town to cool down’, his motivation read. But the other participants unanimously reacted with surprise: are you serious?!
The participants did however seriously consider the option of leaving the area as it is. After all, the river puts part of Párovské Lúky under water, and that relatively shallow water forms a wonderful large ice rink in winter that people come to skate on from all over the area. But despite that social component, participants also quickly agreed that keeping the area intact would be a missed opportunity, given the challenges facing the city. But what then?
Out of the boxes
To structure this fine chaos and arrive at a shared vision, in the second round participants were divided into three tables. It turned out that two tables had visions that were already very similar. They both went for a 50:50 split of people and nature. The consequence of this choice is that there won’t be room to house 30,000 people. But a bit of further questioning revealed that this is not necessary at all anyway, for Nitra’s population is shrinking. The inhabitants are mainly looking for more wellbeing: there is a need for more greenery, space and affordable housing. In this respect ‘combining and integration of functions’ are important to the participants of these tables. More concretely: diversity in buildings, plants and target groups. Young, old, rich and poor, all mixed together and no separate “boxes” for offices, housing and greenery. Apart from focusing on affordable rental homes, bio-based building is also important. Because on that, both tables agree: concrete houses are really not an option anymore.
Rewilding
The people around the third table, mainly environmentalists and people from nature protection organisations, had a firmer starting point for the division of the land: 80 per cent for nature, 20 per cent for people. They wanted to restore and rewild nature as a cultural heritage, thus also making the area attractive for tourists and for leisure of Nitra’s residents. The proposal to then put the area’s residents all in one big tower was immediately shot down by the senior city architect: ‘You simply can’t do that! No one would want to live there.’ Other participants also said that this proposal wouldn’t make it, because the city has other wishes and desires.
Work WITH nature
Regardless of their background, all participants agreed that nature and biodiversity should form the basis of the master plan. And that there should be much more combining, integrating and reinforcing. For instance, integrate nature by connecting the restored natural area in Párovské Lúky (e.g. via an ecoduct across the river) with the large park in Nitra to create one big “Central Park”. Or bring back the original hilly landscape with its forests, flowery fields and grasslands by raising the landscape in Párovské Lúky. That could also solve the problem of waterlogging in part of the area. Moreover, a hill in the landscape could provide a visual connection to the castle in Nitra, which is an icon on top of a hill.
But what options are there without raising the land? What are the options if you embrace the water and choose to live with it? At the moment, nothing is being done with the water resources, which are highly polluted. That possibility raises new questions. How could the water be cleaned? Could the water be used for renewable energy or transport? And how could you make use of the fact that part of the land in Párovské Lúky is being flooded?
In other words: ‘How can we work with nature, instead of against it?’, as one of the participants summarized all these questions.
City within a city
The unique position of the fields and grasslands of Párovské Lúky in relation to the city provide almost a blank canvas to develop a truly sustainable future-proof “city within a city”. A canvas that provides space for Nitra’s residents needs and activities, and also brings its own very rich, valuable and vulnerable natural ecosystem.
It should not become a residential area where people just live and then still travel to Nitra’s city centre for work, school and medical facilities. It should be a new city centre where all those important functionalities already are. A car-free area with lots of cycle lanes and only parking spaces for cars at the edges of the area.
There is no doubt that designed and developed with thought and care, Párovské Lúky could serve as an example of good practice for future urbanisation that embraces biodiversity, climate, wellbeing and equity.
Leading example
Until now, everyone was mainly working individually on the master plan for Nitra. As a result, houses are already being built in two areas in Párovské Lúky in the short term. The participants in the co-creation session think this is a missed opportunity. Those plans were once again created from short-term thinking and economic interests instead of daring to slow down and start from one overarching vision. ‘There is no larger concept. They are just solving the details.’ But the participants are determined to do something about it.
In PLUS Change, the architects and urban planners literally sit next to the forest managers, scientists and environmentalists. The realists next to the dreamers. If the realists say ‘That’s way too ambitious’, the dreamers reply ‘It’s all possible. Let’s keep it open and see what succeeds.’ This not only creates a much richer vision, it also provides space to shape the process further. And it raises new questions, like ‘Should we involve other stakeholders such as the various landowners of Párovské Lúky or the farmers now tending the land in the plans?’ and ‘Could we leave parts of the plans for the area open to be completed by residents themselves to create more shared responsibility?’.
Either way, at the end of the session, all participants realize: If we do this right, Párovské Lúky can become a leading example for future urbanization in the whole area and even the country.
Text: Merel van der Lande
