URAM Park in Kazan
URAM-Park in Kazan is a unique youth extreme center under the bridge. It became the first extreme playground deployed on the investment under the Kazanka River embankment improvement program. The new public space near the Millennium Bridge was inaugurated on August 30, 2020. The experience of transforming an urban underground zone, favored by informals, into an organized social sector with established rules and norms has proven to be incredibly successful.
Video: URAM Park in Kazan
Highlights
URAM Park covers an area of 42,000 m². It is possible that the appearance of such a significant facility will turn Kazan into a real extreme sports capital. Already now skaters, rollers and riders come to the Uram Park not only from all over the capital of the Republic of Tatarstan, but also from other regions of Russia.
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But Europe’s largest training ground for extreme sportsmen attracts not only representatives of the professional sports community – the park has become a unique multifunctional socially significant public space from the point of view of sports, art and culture development.
.History of the Uram Extreme Park
In 2012, the supports of the Millennium Bridge were favored by representatives of street art. In 5 years, the center of Kazan street art was formed under the bridge. The graffiti gallery turned into a city attraction, and the location itself became a place for active young people to socialize.
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Representatives of the Ministry of Youth Affairs, having met with delegates of the underground community, proposed the idea of creating an extreme park near the bridge. As a result, the initiative found support in the government of the Republic of Tatarstan, and the construction of a new public space was included in the concept of development of the Kremlin embankment.
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The task was set to develop a site where professional extreme sportsmen, fans of active sports, residents and guests of Kazan who decided to spend their free time in an interesting and useful way could find a place for self-realization. One of the requirements was compliance with the architectural concept – the new facility had to fit perfectly into the historical image of the central district of Kazan.
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Legato Sports Architecture brilliantly coped with the task and presented the URAM Extreme Park, which united a sports zone, a city park and a platform for cultural events. Now it is a popular public space where more than 13,000 guests relax daily and about 4,000 extreme riders train.
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URAM-park locations
In creating the public space, the organizers identified its two main functions:
- providing a place for sports training of Olympic-level participants of extreme competitions, among which one can meet medalists of championships of federal and world level;
- forming a free recreation area for members of the general public.
Open space of the park
The street portion of the park, which opens to the public on August 30, 2020, was built in 6 months. Numerous sports facilities appeared on a 19,000 m² area.
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- A skate park consisting of two areas, a bowling pool and a street plaza. The Bowl Pool is a practice and competition area that simulates drained pools. The street plaza simulates an urban landscape with railed stairs, gentle slopes, parapets and other similar small architectural forms. These areas are designed for skateboards, scooters, bicycles and roller skates.
- Large and small jump tracks are tracks with turns and jumps for bicycle and scooter riders. The varying degrees of difficulty of the tracks allow both experienced athletes and beginners to train. There are even areas where preschoolers can ride.
- For practicing tricks there is a training zone, where the surface covered with mats and lined with soft plastic protects from injuries. There is also an air park with various obstacles that allow riders, skateboarders and rollerbladers to practice difficult jumps.
- On the streetball courts with special shock-absorbing surface, six pairs of teams of three players each can compete at once.
- For parkour lovers, the organizers have created a handmade platform made of concrete with various obstacles. The concrete surface is completely covered with a rubber crumb coating.
- And three more zones can be found in the open area – a vorkout, a summer pavilion and a multifunctional field.
All zones are designed in such a way that they can be used for training and organizing competitions of international level. Elements of varying degrees of complexity, provided by the designers, allow athletes of any level of training and those who are just about to master the field of extreme entertainment.
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The open ground of the URAM-park is open in the warm season and is free of charge.
.There are no exact start and close dates for the season – it all depends on what the weather will be like.
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Indoor playground
The two-story indoor park building was built and equipped with the necessary equipment from April 2020 to August 2021. It became available to visitors in November 2021.
‘ Building of the indoor extreme park
On two floors with a total area of 7,900 m², there are both areas for extreme sports and cultural spaces that can be visited by everyone. Experts recognize that the indoor extreme park’s complex of sports facilities is unique even on an international scale. Just like in the open-air area, skateboarders, rollers and riders will find different zones here:
.- bowlepool;
- street plaza; .
- airpark.
For each zone, the architects chose a specific look and materials. For the bowling pool it was concrete, for the air park it was plywood, the lecture hall was decorated with numerous lights suspended from the ceiling and walls forming a geometric structure. The central passageway is also equipped with a grid of lights, together with the framed walls creating a spatial interior.
.Bowl Pool
The concrete bowls of the bowling alley were designed according to the canons of skateboarding, and visually are classic images of abandoned pools in California that were once favored by extreme skaters.
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Air Park
The “plywood sea” – a complex for beginner riders, advanced athletes and professionals – is spread over an area of 1700 m2. In a small fly-box, separated by a wall, beginners practice. For those who love tricks there is a training zone and an air zone with many tiers made up of elements of different complexity – spines, transfers, volrides and quarters. Special foam pits are provided for safe landing of riders after performing a trick in the air.
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Other indoor park facilities
In April 2022, a Twokai studio and a Legend store opened in the building. Twokai is a joint project of Rosmolodezh and the Ministry of Youth Affairs of the Republic of Tatarstan, aimed at introducing the public to events and phenomena from different cultural areas of life, including music, creativity and sports. The “Legend” outlet is a skate shop where fans of extreme sports will be able to buy equipment and clothing for their activities.
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And for those who only dream of trying themselves as an extreme sportsman and do not want to buy the necessary items for skating, there is a point of equipment rental known in Kazan network “Prokatvsem.rf”.
.Scratch Dj School
When the DJ school moved from the office on Profsoyuznaya Street to URAM-Park, it turned from a closed community inaccessible to the general public into a format of open space for people passionate about music. Here they give lessons on DJing and scratching, teach adults and children to create music, organize parties and battles.
.A VAZ 2101 car – the famous “Kopeika” – stands in the school premises. On it the organizers once made a run from Moscow to Riga, visiting on the way St. Petersburg and the capitals of Finland, Sweden and Estonia.
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Cafe by Pokeshnaya
By the summer of 2022, a large food court was promised to be rolled out next to the Extreme Park, but the place where you can grab a bite to eat has so far been limited to one catering establishment on a closed site. This is the cafe by Pokeshnaya.
.According to the concept proposed by the brand-chef, visitors are offered a menu with simple and understandable dishes. Assuming that the cafe’s guests will be families with children, the owners decided to follow their conservative eating habits and did not emphasize gastronomic delights. But at the same time set the goal to cook delicious, regardless of what will be on the menu: hot dogs and dumplings, nuggets and fries, as well as soups, salads, poke and other street-food dishes.
.You can grab a bite to eat at Poke Shop from 10:00 to 22:00, and the cafe is open daily.
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How to get there
URAM Park occupies the space at the foot of the Millennium Bridge and is an extension of the Kremlin Embankment. Walks along the embankment of the Kazanka River are almost a mandatory program of all tourist routes in Kazan. Now one more unique object has been added to them – an extreme park. It is impossible to drive directly to the territory – those wishing to visit the trendy location will have to take a short walk.
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Nearest public transportation stops:
.- “Millennium Bridge” – from it to the park is just over 750 meters. Buses #28, 43, 54 stop here;
- “Gorky Central Park” – this is the stop of trolleybuses № 3, 5, 7 and buses № 10, 35-a, 63, 70, 91. The distance from it to the Extreme Park is 1.5 km;
- “Ulitsa Tolstogo” – through it pass the routes of buses № 22, 89, 28-a. From the stop to the park you need to walk a little more than 1.5 km.
The nearest metro stations are “Kremlevskaya”, “Sukonnaya Sloboda” and “Ploshchad Tukai”. All three are on the Central line. From the latter two, transportation goes to the stop “Millennium Bridge” – it is most convenient for those who get to Uram Park by metro.
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