New urban room within the city of Kranj

Abstract: Already since the time when I decided to study landscape architecture, I knew that one of my projects may deal with design proposals for my hometown Kranj in Slovenia. Kranj is a picturesque historic town above the confluence of two alpine rivers – the Sava and the Kokra. Due to its geographical position – on the junction of important routes, leading from the Northern Europe to the Adriatic Sea and from the Western Europe towards the Eastern Europe – Kranj is also a strong commercial as well as cultural and historical centre. It offers a pleasant atmosphere of a small town. Kranj, being the fourth biggest city in Slovenia, is the industrial, employment, traffic, educational, cultural and sports centre of Gorenjska. But it is also one of those cities which lost its soul after the invasion of shopping centres at the outskirts of the city. Small shops, bakeries, and museums are falling into oblivion. City is lacking greenery. Public spaces are not designed in a way that attracts people. The market, which once had an intention of being a meeting place, is nowadays empty and dull and few local growers are still persevering in selling their products there. There is only one playground in the city, which was renovated not long ago and seems very popular among young inhabitants and their parents. Main squares in the city do not stand out - some of them are even latent - and are lacking urban equipment and vegetation. Although the streetscape of Kranj tends to link together "meeting places", few streetlights, shop windows, dull grey pavement, and flowerpots cannot "convince" people to make a stay in the city. Inhabitants use streetscape as a pedestrian transition between places of employment and dwellings nearby. When the city holds an event, there are a lot of people coming to Kranj. At that time it turns out that Kranj has a potential to become a more attractive and friendly city for its inhabitants, as well as for tourists visiting our city. In my opinion people are those who provide the soul of every city. A city may hold adorably designed public spaces, city parks and water fronts, but if people do not use all of these, the city looks joyless. It is something about the creativity of people who live in or run cities; as I see it their creative sense may determine the future success of their town. Anyhow, it is important to get beyond the idea that creativity is the exclusive domain of artists or that innovations are largely technological; people need to understand that there is also social and political creativity and innovation. Every promising city should have as an intention to keep creative people within the city, in that way they can cooperate with each other and come out with innovative ideas to make the city more alive and attractive. Well designed public spaces within the city have a tendency to help creative ideas. People there feel comfortably relaxed. More socially heterogeneous places simultaneously stimulate and challenge their visitors. Public spaces as such may also function as showcases for creative thinking and ideas.