White Flowers Boulevard

White Flowers Boulevard is a park instead of a car park. The new public space, which has become an alternative centre of the district, is located on the site of former paid car parks — trucks were parked here on construction waste mounds. The constant conflict between cars and pedestrians was dangerous, as there was no single and continuous pedestrian route from houses to public transport stop and school. Moreover, parking fields became a kind of alienation space — and shops and business centres began to be built up. The new boulevard is an alternative to parking and unsystematic development for the benefit of residents. The major aim was to bring cummons back to the public and stop the privatisation of abandoned space initially meant to be public.

The residents of the district, which was built up with standard panel houses in the early 2000s, wanted the new public space to transform the district, have its own "face" and identity. The boulevard was named "White Flowers'' after a landmark novel by the classic of Tatar literature, Abdurakhman Absalyamov, whose name is given to the street. The project contains many references to the legacy of the writer, Tatar literature and 1960s Kazan. The art object in the form of letters of the Tatar alphabet is inspired by Absalyamov's real typewriter found in the writer's museum and invented together with the writer's granddaughter Albina.

Also many local experts were involved in the project — landscape architects, transport specialists. The preliminary design was discussed at large open seminars using design game tools and small focus groups with different communities. At various stages, interested communities were involved — sportsmen, cyclists, dog handlers, and many others. All solutions were created together with the Directorate of Parks and Gardens of Kazan, the future operator of public space. Architects accompanied the construction process, and a year after the opening, carried out a post-assessment of the space. In order to create a successful public space, a place that people will love and care for, it was necessary to involve all stakeholders in the project and bring together an interdisciplinary team of professionals.

The case of the White Flowers boulevard is not a reconstruction of an already existing Soviet park, which is a usual practice for Russia, but a groundbreaking case of creation of a system of local public spaces where they didn't exist. White Flowers boulevard is an example of that type, which significantly affects the ecology in the area through an increase in percentage of landscaping.

The boulevard has become a place that is visited for educational purposes, educational excursions for government delegations, managers of public spaces, architects, urbanists, landscapers. White Flowers boulevard has become a notable example, referenced place and cited as an example in many federal forums and discussions in Russia.