Park Diagonal Mar

Architecture: Enric Miralles & Benedetta Tagliabue
Landscape Architecture: EDAW
Location: Barcelona, Spain
Completion: 2002

EDAW: Diagonal Mar, a retail and residential complex centered on a public park, completes Barcelona’s urban beachfront revitalization begun in 1989 for the Summer Olympic Games. Working with Robert A.M. Stern Architects and Spanish architect Enric Miralles, EDAW developed a master plan for the entire development.

Providing a gateway to the sea for locals and visitors, Parc Diagonal Mar features play areas, lakes, a waterfall, an outdoor café, a fountain and viewingmounds, all linked by paths that lead to the beach. The park is conceived as an abstract tapestry in plan view, and is enjoyed from above by high-rise residents.

Ecology played a meaningful role in the park’s design. Porous pavements minimize stormwater runoff. The use of native plant materials allows for reduced irrigation and pesticide use. A regional retention pond and sections of shoreline edged with aquatic plants provide first flush cleansing of stormwater, as well as a habitat for indigenous marine and bird species.

This entry was written by admin, posted on September 28, 2009 at 8:19 pm, filed under Parks, Playscapes, on the spot and tagged Barcelona, Spain, wall, Water. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Foundries’ Garden

Project: Jardin des Fonderies / Foundries’ Garden
Design:  ADH Doazan+Hirschberger
Location: Nantes, France
Area: 23 000 m²
Budget: 5 M €
Studies : april 04 / november 06
Works : may 07 / april 09
Text & Photos: ADH & Hervé Abbadie

The Foundries’ Garden is located on the « Ile de Nantes », one of the biggest urban projects under construction in France. The development is spread out in the length of an island in the centre of Nantes.

Directed by Alexandre Chemetoff since 1990, the project is the transformation of a long unused factory and warehouse district into a large working and housing neighborhood of 350 hectares. Chemetoff’s vision for the project rests on two underlying ideas:
-make the most of the existing structures without demolishing,
-take into account the history and geography of the site, and its social environment.

The Foundries’ Garden project is located in the middle of the island, far from the river Loire, in a suburban zone with social housing and factories.

The project consists in the rehabilitation of the building and public spaces around the Fonderies Atlantique complex. Fonderies Atlantique was a company specialized in manufacturing propellers for sea liners. Many famous liners were equipped with these propellers (Le France, Le Clémenceau) before the company changed its name and location. Industrial ovens, rails and three pits are visible traces of the old activity that remain on the site.

The main goals were:
-Create a “garden under a roof”: a covered public space for everyday use, children’s games and neighborhood social events (dinners, exhibitions…). Having the garden sheltered is a big advantage for all these public uses;

-Showcase the former industrial activity, not just as a museum but also as a legacy of a place where many local citizens were employed, worked hard and with passion and for which the conservation of the site is a emotional tribute to the city’s industrial past and to their working lives.

The garden is split into two parts:

-“Le jardin des fours” located around the former ovens. Here, we planted graminaceae, bamboos and arundos that will create “green columns” next to new water tanks.  The garden will become a kind of “machines gallery”.

-A “Travels Garden” occupies the main part of the site. It’s built 1,50m above the original ground level because of the polluted soil that needed to be stabilized. The travel theme is illustrated with a collection of plants that came into Europe through the Atlantic ports during the 16th, 17th and 18th centuries. These essences were imported thanks to overseas scientific and economic expeditions and became acclimatized.

The former iron structure was repaired and painted. The roof was replaced with a mix of full and transparent polycarbonate tiles.

The site covering (roof and buildings around) protects it from the wind and allows the temperature in the garden to be 3 or 4 degrees Celsius higher than outside. This “greenhouse’s effect” allowed us to plant almost exotic vegetation.

A covered garden needs a complete watering system: rain water is collected by 2 tanks (2×50m3) and redistributed through different watering networks. Humidity and freshness is maintained by mist spraying the plants.

This entry was written by admin, posted on September 27, 2009 at 9:38 pm, filed under Infrastructure, Parks, Post-Industrial and tagged France, Nantes. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Madrid’s Shell Bridge

“West 8, working together with MRIO, designed the master plan for the reclaimed riverbanks and the new urban area above the tunnels of the M30 highway in Madrid. The different parks that are part of the plan are connected by pedestrian bridges.
The bridges are designed as heavy concrete domes with a rough structure. One hundred cables carry the delicate steel deck as if they were whalebone.
On entering, the fine details of the bridge become clear. There is a fresco painted on the domed ceiling and lighting will be incorporated in the edges of the ceiling to light out the art work.”

“Construction is moving along at the first Shell Bridge, West 8+ MRIO designed for the City of Madrid. 100 m3 of concrete was poured inbetween the two layers of the wooden mold, moving another step closer to the desired end result: a concrete dome.”

more information: Bridges Parque Lineal de Manzanares

This entry was written by admin, posted on September 17, 2009 at 7:34 pm, filed under Details, Infrastructure, Waterfronts and tagged Bridge, Madrid, Spain. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Facades of Segovia

Location: Segovia (wiki), Spain
Completion: Renaissance

Brief pattern study and a footprint of a multicultural past of a city.

Photos by Landezine cc

This entry was written by admin, posted on September 16, 2009 at 10:39 pm, filed under Details, on the spot and tagged Architecture, Patterns, Segovia, Spain. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

ASLA 2009 Student Awards

Today the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA) announced the winners of the 2009 Student Awards. Representing the top student honors in the profession, ASLA will present the awards to team representatives for 21 projects in seven categories from colleges and universities around the world. Landscape Structures has sponsored registration for each winning official entrant, plus travel and hotel accommodations for those given the Award of Excellence. The ceremony and reception will take place on September 21 at the ASLA Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Projects can be viewed at www.asla.org/2009studentawards.

This entry was written by admin, posted on September 15, 2009 at 11:39 pm, filed under Competitions and tagged ASLA, Student work. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Pinar del Perruquet Park

Landscape Architecture: ARTEKS Arquitectura
Location: La Pineda, Tarragona, Spain
Area: 28,000 m²
Project: 2008

Detailed description and more photos here.

Photos by Landezine cc

This entry was written by admin, posted on September 14, 2009 at 6:20 pm, filed under Exstalations, Parks, Playscapes, on the spot and tagged Spain, Tarragona, Water. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Forum / Shaded Area

Design: DOT Arquitectes, SCP (Elisabet Capdeferro, Ramon Bosch)
Project: Shaded area at the Barcelona Forum 2004
Location: Forum, Barcelona, Spain
Project year:  2004

a reader’s comment on Plaça Virrei Amat post reminded me on this project, but unfortunately i have just one photo. some other you can se here.

This entry was written by admin, posted on September 6, 2009 at 6:00 pm, filed under Competitions, Outdoor furniture, Parks, on the spot and tagged Barcelona, Spain. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Walkways at Castelldefels Castle

Landscape Architecture: JOSÉ ANTONIO MARTÍNEZ LAPEÑA & ELÍAS TORRES Architects with Miguel Usandizaga arch.
Location: Castelldefels, Barcelona, Spain
Completion: 1993

JAMLET: As the first stage of the developement and landscaping of the hill sorrounding the castle at Castelldefels, a pedestrian walkway has been built to give access to the castle from the city centre. To overcome the difference in levels between the city and the castle, the ramps zigzag up the hill with supporting walls for the levelled areas. These walls are made of reinforced concrete and steel formwork “corten” and held in place using inclined struts. The top ends of the steel formwork are extended to form handrails for the walkways.

The project is intended to solve a specific problem, to provide an access path from the city to the castle, using a single material and a single method of construction. This uniformity, the fact that the walkways form a continous unit more than a kilometre long and the way in which the wall is sectioned, give the project an apperance halfway “iron papiroflexia” and urban development.

Photos by Landezine cc

This entry was written by admin, posted on September 4, 2009 at 9:58 pm, filed under Parks, on the spot and tagged Barcelona, Castelldefels, Spain. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Parc Central de Nou Barris

Landscape Architecture: A. Arriola, C. Fiol
Collaborators: E. Amat, X. Arriola, V. Bagnato, M. Boutin, A. Carreras, L. Dazio, D. Dethlefsen,M. Fiore, U. Huber,C. Kolar, I. Kuhn, M. Marugg, R. Nana, S. Rux, A. Soler
Budget: 15.884.031 €
Dates: project:1997
Work:1999-2004
Area:170.000m²
Project cost: 11.326.424 €

Arriola & Fiol: The construction of Nou Barris Park is the central intervention in the complete renewal of Barcelona’s eastern periphery. It was begun under the leadership of the politician Antoni Santiburcio, who died a year ago after a long struggle to transform the dismal periphery into a self-respecting area. With the new international Forum organized by Barcelona on the maritime front in 2004, the decision to finish the park is quite an achievement.

The Nou Barris district is a part of Barcelona with no identity of its own. A vast conglomeration of different neighbourhoods with different urban histories and weak connectivity, it extends over eight square kilometers. Only after the 1992 Olympics, when the Ronda de Dalt ring road was finally built, was it connected to the rest of the city. Its potential was greatly increased, for the well-to-do areas in the west and the District of Nou Barris around Karl Marx Plaza are now only ten minutes apart.

Read more on designers’ website

Photos by Landezine cc

This entry was written by admin, posted on September 3, 2009 at 4:33 pm, filed under Parks, Playscapes, on the spot and tagged Barcelona, Public space, Spain, Water. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.

Plaça Virrei Amat

Landscape Architecture: Arriola & Fiol Arquitectes
Location: Districte de Nou Barris, Barcelona
Design Team:
Architects: Andreu Arriola, Carmen Fiol, Beat Marugg
Collaborators: Ursula Huber, Dörte Dethlefsen.
Structure: Agustí Obiol
Installations: Josep Mª Salvany, DB.
Quantity Surveyor: Lluís Roig, Lluís Fontanet
Area: 15,000 m²
Project cost: 2,3 mio €
Barcelona, 1999

Photos by Landezine cc

Arriola & Fiol: The remodelling of the Virrei Amat square does not only plan the previous round about area, but also proposes a new configuration which gives this public area a new dimension, from 2500 m2 to 18500 m2, adding new spaces and tracing the new traffic flows.

The traffic organisation results in many adjacent streets to be only for pedestrian use and be incorporated as part of this new public development. Moreover, the importance of the public transport system to be redistributed and bus stops to be newly allocated.

The square is identified as a large space for leisure and pedestrian circulation with an artificial pond and fountains as the main motif of the most representative part. Its surrounding pavement is shaped topographically as a beach, which has an inclination until it meets the superior level of the pond.

A laminated timber pergola articulated with large existing trees relates the square with the surrounding buildings and allows concerts and manifestations to take place.

Finally, the new square develops out of its own spacious surrounding and relates to its neighbourhood. The volumes of the pond, “beach”, pergola, vegetation areas and terraces organise itself, orientating the access, paths and views in relationship to the immediate landscape.

This entry was written by admin, posted on September 1, 2009 at 11:08 pm, filed under Exstalations, Parks, Playscapes, Squares, on the spot and tagged Barcelona, Spain. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.