New urban room within the city of Kranj

Already since the time when I decided to study landscape architecture, I knew that one of \nmy projects may deal with design proposals for my hometown Kranj in Slovenia. Kranj is \na picturesque historic town above the confluence of two alpine rivers – the Sava and the \nKokra. Due to its geographical position – on the junction of important routes, leading from \nthe Northern Europe to the Adriatic Sea and from the Western Europe towards the Eastern \nEurope – Kranj is also a strong commercial as well as cultural and historical centre. It offers \na pleasant atmosphere of a small town. Kranj, being the fourth biggest city in Slovenia, is \nthe industrial, employment, traffic, educational, cultural and sports centre of Gorenjska. \nBut it is also one of those cities which lost its soul after the invasion of shopping centres \nat the outskirts of the city. Small shops, bakeries, and museums are falling into oblivion. \nCity is lacking greenery. Public spaces are not designed in a way that attracts people. The \nmarket, which once had an intention of being a meeting place, is nowadays empty and \ndull and few local growers are still persevering in selling their products there. There is only \none playground in the city, which was renovated not long ago and seems very popular \namong young inhabitants and their parents. Main squares in the city do not stand out - \nsome of them are even latent - and are lacking urban equipment and vegetation. Although \nthe streetscape of Kranj tends to link together "meeting places", few streetlights, shop \nwindows, dull grey pavement, and flowerpots cannot "convince" people to make a stay \nin the city. \n \nInhabitants use streetscape as a pedestrian transition between places of employment \nand dwellings nearby. When the city holds an event, there are a lot of people coming to \nKranj. At that time it turns out that Kranj has a potential to become a more attractive and \nfriendly city for its inhabitants, as well as for tourists visiting our city. \n \nIn my opinion people are those who provide the soul of every city. A city may hold adorably \ndesigned public spaces, city parks and water fronts, but if people do not use all of these, \nthe city looks joyless. It is something about the creativity of people who live in or run \ncities; as I see it their creative sense may determine the future success of their town. \n \nAnyhow, it is important to get beyond the idea that creativity is the exclusive domain of \nartists or that innovations are largely technological; people need to understand that there \nis also social and political creativity and innovation. Every promising city should have \nas an intention to keep creative people within the city, in that way they can cooperate \nwith each other and come out with innovative ideas to make the city more alive and \nattractive. \n \nWell designed public spaces within the city have a tendency to help creative ideas. People \nthere feel comfortably relaxed. More socially heterogeneous places simultaneously \nstimulate and challenge their visitors. Public spaces as such may also function as \nshowcases for creative thinking and ideas.