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City of Democracy
- Architect
- PPMS; Metro Arquitetos; SIAA
- Area
- 4.099.302 m²
- Date
- 2012
- Location
- Libreville - Gabon
- Awards
City of Democracy Libreville Gabon’s Conference Center Reconstruction Second Prize Winning
BOULEVARD AND PARKING-PARK
The proposed landscape design is readable as a unit, and creates a cohesive relationship between outer and built spaces; it is assumed as a functional extension, where one feels a harmonious dialogue between the natural landscape, the cultural context, and contemporaneity. It is not limited to outer space; through flowerbeds and embankments, it invades accesses and environments in the entire complex.
The site aims at maintaining an African atmosphere, where Man and Nature merge. It allows cheerful and relaxed experiences, where a contemporary path is dominant, complemented by the presence of lush vegetation, from different extracts, according to the role they play in the organization of space, always allowing a full view of the buildings.
The water element represents the transience of the peoples’ lives, their history and their memories, but also takes us into the future, and gives us answers, symbolically translating the resilience of the African people. It aims to reflect not only the buildings and the sky, but the vegetation as well.
Water translates physically into space in the form of a continuous tapestry, a driver of the visual axes that allow the contemplation of the buildings and embankments next to a main covered circuit.
The pedestrian circulation between buildings takes place through a main covered circuit translated into a bipolar axis. Alternatively, visitors may opt for an external path characterized by the occurrence of a set of beds suggesting patterns representing the African culture. A curtain of vegetation makes up the barrier between this space and the parking lot, supplemented by a wooded street layout that makes this space thermally more comfortable.ZOO BOTANIC PARK AND GOLF
Gabon is known worldwide for its rich rainforest and the presence of unique wildlife; and is considered a sanctuary for endangered species such as the lowland gorilla, chimpanzees, and the forest elephant.
The City of Democracy Zoo Botanic Park will combine forested areas, with the presence of wild local fauna living in semi freedom, inserted as thematic elements of the golf course.
Animals like forest elephants, crocodiles, antelopes, and apes will be distributed at the park in harmony, reproducing the natural environment of the species, with subtle boundaries to the human eye, but without endangering users of the site.
Immersion enclosures, lookouts, and trails in forested areas will be resources to keep the birds housed, giving visitors the feeling of belonging to the environment through the proximity to the animals.
The proposed association of the “zoo” with the golf course offers landscaping quality to the contemplation of scenic beauty for frequenters of the site, without the presence of railings or coarse fixation of spaces.For instance, elephants will have open space interspersed with massive equatorial forest; wetlands for crocodiles will work as obstacles to the golf; pastures of the deer will be used in common with golf players.
This zoo park model not only allows contemplation of different kinds of endangered species that only occur in this area of the world, but as a suitable environment for animal life, promoting the breeding and showing the concern that the country has with the unique African bio diversity.