Batumi Waterfront Master Plan in Batumi, Georgia
Client
GRDC Group Tbilisi, Georgia
Planning period
2008
Technical Planer
Stötzer + Stötzer Landschaftsarchitekten Freiburg
Embedded in a landscape between the Black Sea and the mountains, the Georgian city of Batumi has a regular, orthogonally structured urban layout. Further development of the existing urban typology of Batumi and establishment of a new master plan for an area in the south-west of the city is based on its location by the sea, as well as the urban zoning and road network. The structural concept of the master plan incorporates the well-established principle of opening the city with access roads leading to the sea and the basic perimeter block development structure.
As a generous link between the city and the sea, a broad boulevard with trees forms the central axis of the master plan. A new urban periphery is created, characterised by the Waterfront Buildings – individual tower-like structures with private apartments, rising up above restaurants, shopping malls and leisure facilities accommodated in low-height constructions at the base. The vertical structure of the residential towers avoids conglomeration along the coast, and city views of the sea and mountains are retained.
Further away from the sea, the perimeter block development displays a differentiated architecture, with lower height housing, as well as shops and hotels grouped around central green spaces. Access roads and alleys link these districts to the sea on one side and to the mountains on the other. The Waterfront Buildings are clear gestures of an independently evolving urban development that simultaneously strengthens the prevailing historical and geographical situation. The dynamic development and vitalisation is also an expression of a new social development in Georgia.