Anna Petrus park is a neighbourhood park in Kungsängen, Uppsala, offering opportunities for challenging activities and play equipment inspired and characterized by the history as an industrial site. Anna Petrus park was created in collaboration with local active associations for skateboarding and parkour. The aim was to create a unique park and content rich meeting spot for all ages in an expanding part of Uppsala. The park functions as an attractive place for the residents in the immediate area and the neighbouring preschool, but also as a destination for the entire city.
Kungsängen is a former industrial area located in the south of Uppsala city centre. It was developed into an area for industrial purposes in the 1920 ́s and continued growing throughout the century. In the end of the 20th century, housing companies and building contractors began developing offices and commercial buildings in the area as well. The municipality of Uppsala presented a plan to ensure the new development of Kungsängen would also include housing and more greenery in the renewal of traditional grid city structure. Kungsängen has transformed into a popular residential area over the last decades and is still expanding today.
The structure of the park is based on functional paths for movement and connections between active spaces. Denser plantings define and defines the park into different spaces and zones. The open grass area in the middle of the park has a unifying function.
The park was planned as a space for urban play and activity areas for everyone. The aim was to create an attractive place for social meetings with sustainable and exiting content. Open and easily overviewed spaces, large hard surfaces for activity and accessibility are supplemented by calmer green spaces for relaxation. Visitors are offered a variety of seating such as sofas, sundecks, a grass slope and low concrete wall elements.
The play and activity areas are designed to surprise and challenge the user, as well as evoke curiosity and the joy of discovering. The layout of the parkour facilities is designed together with the Uppsala parkour association. A skate plaza was designed in consultation with the Uppsala skate association. It provides challenges for both advanced skaters and for younger children with skateboards or kick bikes. There is also a climbing wall, and the open lawn is perfect for ball games, frisbee or just hanging out.
A coherent design with recurring steel constructions and straight lines forming rooms of varying sizes and content. The industrial character that is reflected in the choice of materials and their finish. Parkour walls of cast-in-place concrete with a graphic pattern reappear as delimiting elements. The equipment is consistently made of steel with elements of wood and has been coordinated in terms of colour and character, in line with the industrial feel. Play equipment and colour of cast-in-place rubber surface have been carefully tested and adapted to be experienced as uniform and coherent.
To invite and include every user the park is adapted for good accessibility. The sandpit has a play table accessible for the disabled and accessible swings are also provided. A wooden footbridge allows children with wheelchairs to participate in hide and seek among salix bushes and to follow the balance path that extends through part of the park.
The park contains several pieces specially designed for the site such as climbing and parkour rails, a recessed concrete skateboard plaza, a big scale pergola, wooden and concrete seating and play equipment for children of different ages. The details are designed with care and with materials that relate to the industrial history of the place.
Anna Petrus park addresses itself from the adjacent streets with a border of greenery. The many entrances make the park accessible and inviting. The park is surrounded by plantings including trees and bushes of different characters, some wilder and lush, and others stricter. Birch, cherry, magnolia, pine and taxus are some of the spieces. Lively spring blossom, evergreen foliage contrasting the white trunks of the birches and flowering bulbs adds experiential values to the site all year around. Robust shrubs such as salix are used for play zones. Perennial plantings are primarily placed by the calm parts for socializing and resting.
The park is named after Anna Marie-Louise Petrus Lyttkens, a Swedish pioneer in Swedish industrial design. She was also a sculptor and dancer and active during the first half of the 20th century. The design of the park carries inspiration from the industrial history.
The park was completed in September 2014 and have since then become a well appreciated meeting point. It is used for play, sports and work out groups, as well as for relaxation and social gatherings.
Website: www.karavanlandskap.se
Other designers involved in the design: Construction by Consulting AB
Project location: Kungsängen, Uppsala, Sweden
Year Built: 2014
Client: Uppsala municipality
Area: 5000 m2
Photos: Göran Ekeberg, Alex Giacomini (Alex&Martin)
Designers: Karavan landskapsarkitekter /
