Akhtala Park AdaptationGurjaani, GE2026

We are pleased to present our competition concept for the redevelopment of Akhtala Park in Gurjaani. Akhtala is Georgia's only therapeutic mud resort, and the 34,794 m² park is the recreational and cultural heart of the town, home to the annual Gurjaani Wine Festival.

The main generator of the design is Akhtala's unique mud itself. Biomorphic, organic forms derived from the texture of its surface become the language of the zoning, the paths and the small pavilions, so that the park reads as a "living surface".

At the centre, on a clearing among the trees, a fountain becomes a living metaphor of a bubbling mud crater and distributes visitors towards the different zones. An information centre welcomes them at the main entrance, while the northern edge hosts a covered open-air stage facing the Caucasus, an open pavilion and a tone-oven area for the festival and local gastronomy.

On the site of a former laundry building, a light-weight café-orangery is proposed, with a renewed playground and sports areas next to it. Paths to the new structures use perforated grass pavers, and service volumes are clad in mirror-finish steel so that they visually disappear into the woodland.

Rather than radically transforming the place, the project strengthens its essence: all existing trees and wildlife are preserved, five historic pergolas are gently restored, and new lighting, irrigation and underground utilities prepare the park for future generations.

Competition concept for the Akhtala park landscape design at the Akhtala mud resort in Gurjaani, Kakheti, Georgia — a 34,794 m² park and home of the Gurjaani wine festival. Designed by ISYNC architects.