Cross-Border Landscapes between Slovakia, Austria and Hungary (LE:NOTRE Student Competition)
Main Project II (the Cross Border Landscapes project was one of two possible tasks students could choose between)
Weihenstephan.Triesdorf University of Applied Sciences
The project dealt with the task of the International Student Competition of the LE:NOTRE Institute in advance to the Landscape Forum Bratislava 2020. Students were asked to develop new visions and ideas for the future development of the trinational urban landscape of Bratislava covering Slovak, Hungarian and Austrian territories.
A particular focus was on the Bratislava metropolitan area on the Slovak side of the border, small rural settlements on the Austrian side of the border and the Three Countries Point where the borderlines between Slovakia, Austria and Hungary intersect.
The existing landscape along the former Iron Curtain represents problems and challenges of the specific periurban landscape situation, where the dynamics of urban development of the growing Slovak capital Bratislava meet the international border and affect the surrounding rural municipalities and rural agricultural landscapes.
Based on a detailed analysis the authors of the project 'AMALGAM: A new Story for the Border' developed a concept which includes the main driving forces in this border landscape: urban growth, tourism, history, culture, agriculture and ecology. The landscape was interpreted as a kind of mosaic and used to develop a new pattern which connects people, places and identities - of course crossing the border.
The idea of 'Amalgam' functions as a glue: a new system of paths reconnects the mosaic patches and tells a new story of the historical landscape.
This approach is not only applied in the Masterplan but in the two focus areas as well: with a green landscape corridor between Petrzalka (Slovakia) and Kittsee (Austria)' and a cultural plaza which represents the concept also formally at the Three Countries Point.