Hasta La Ideas

Walls of rough stone and concrete surround the staggered levels of this public square in Zaragoza by Spanish architects Héctor Fernández Elorza and Manuel Fernández Ramírez (+ slideshow).

Located between the city and a canal to the south, the Valdefierro Park occupies an eleven-hectare site that slopes down by over nine metres and was formally used as both a gravel pit and a landfill for construction waste.

Leftover gravel and rubble littered the site before construction, but was mixed with cement to create the rocky walls that line the edges of every terrace.

The concrete walls surround pathways and staircases between terraces, plus new trees have been planted on each level.

Openings in the stone walls provide ledges for seating.

See more stories about landscape architecture »

Photography is by Montse Zamorano.

Here’s a project description from the architects:

Valdefierro Park, Zaragoza

The major decisions concerning the Valdefierro Park Project in Zaragoza were determined by the opportunities afforded by the context of the site itself.

On the one hand, the soil where the park was to be situated was considerably degraded. An L-shaped strip of land covering 11 hectares, bordered to the north and west by the rear of the Valdefierro district and to the south by the Imperial Aragón Canal had been used for years as a gravel-pit and later as a land-fill site, mainly for waste from building works in the city. The clean-up, transfer and recycling of the existing debris in such a large area of the site would have required substantial investment, disproportionate to the volume and budget of the proposed work.

On the other hand, the topographical context is quite pronounced. Almost 9 metres of difference separated the height of the Imperial Aragón Canal from the level of the nearby buildings of the neighbourhood; a difference that caused the riverbed to appear more distant than it really is.

Such determining contextual factors: the gravel-bed debris (with those large gravel stones which at the time nobody wanted to use as gravel), the land-fill site (composed mainly from the rubble of former construction works in the city) and the pronounced topography of the site, led us to construct the project with the geometry of a system of walls.

The gravel and rubble were mixed with cement to construct very thick Cyclopean walls. These unreinforced walls, which on account of gravity vary in depth according to their height, distribute the layout of the site into terraces and determine the topography of the park. Thus the initial contextual problems are turned around to favour the design itself.

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The remaining layout is resolved geometrically. The proximity of the Imperial Canal and its link-up with the southern end is built with just one drop in level: a Cyclopean wall 210 metres long, 1.80 metres thick and 9 metres tall resolves the connection between park and river. The neighbourhood thus benefits from a public space that is optimally placed and serves as a backdrop underlining the canal landscape, while at the same time the depth of the walls allows for the stairs, ramps and benches providing greater accessibility to the canal to be hidden within the construction. Conversely, the extent of space available on the eastern side of the site of the site allows for this area of the Park to be distributed into three terraced levels ; three terraces of variable geometry that adapt to the terrain by means of a double row of Cyclopean walls 1.25 metres in depth and 4 metres tall.

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If the defining Cyclopean walls outlining the topography are constructed from the very stone and soil of the site, the transversal pedestrian connecting areas (ramps and stairways), from the Park to the neighbourhood, in continuity with the existing street network, is resolved by means of reinforced narrow concrete walls. Two different skins with a very different function. The slenderness of the reinforced concrete wall sections is both compensated by and in contrast with the chunky aspect of the Cyclopean masonry. The smooth, polished texture produced by the metallic casting of the moulded sections contrasts with the rough surface of the thick Cyclopean walls, whose internal texture has been revealed by the abrasive action of a rotary crown gear.

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In short, the Park has been built in terraces, on which the recently planted trees will easily grow, protected from the harsh north wind. The horizontal terraces are designed so that local residents will adapt their activities and needs to the layout of the Park. These same residents will move about between the different levels using the stairways and ramps built between the reinforced concrete walls that continue on into the streets of their neighbourhood; they will sit on the benches carved into the Cyclopean masonry or they will make their way through the interior using the various stairwells and ramps.These earthen walls will provide protection from the wind and at the same time receive the welcome rays of winter sunshine; they will highlight the trees and surrounding nature, framing the landscape through their various openings; returning the ball to a child playing or providing shade to an elderly resident. Climbing plants will grow on its walls, insects and birds will make their nests here and graffiti will make its appearance. These infinite artisanal walls, like giant carpets, interweaving with the warp and weft of cement and stone, will serve as a backdrop for conversations, and discussions or as a secret hiding-place for first kisses.

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Architects: Héctor Fernández Elorza and Manuel Fernández Ramírez
Collaborators: Félix Royo Millán, José Antonio Alonso García, Antonio Gros Bañeres, (Engineers)
Location: Sector F-57/8, Barrio de Valdefierro, Zaragoza
Project: 2006-2007
Construction: September de 2009 – December de 2010
Client: Sociedad Municipal ZARAGOZA VIVIENDA, SLU
Constructor: Construcciones MARIANO LÓPEZ NAVARRO, SAU
Surface Area: 11 Ha.
Budget: 5.010.000 euros

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and Manuel Fernández Ramírez appeared first on Dezeen.

Architects OMA have proposed flower auction houses, cable cars and an outdoor theatre as part of Central Holland’s bid to host the World Horticultural Expo in 2022.

The six-month-long festival would occupy a 60 hectare site in the city of Zoetermeer and comprise a loop of zones connected by pathways and rivers, making them accessible to both bicycles and boats.

Each zone would be dedicated to a different aspect of the horticultural industry, including technology, innovation, distribution, culture and leisure, and would link up with existing greenhouses and a whitewater sports complex.

The masterplan is competing with MVRDV’s designs for an artificial peninsula of gardens in Almere, as well as with proposals from the cities of Amsterdam and Groningen.

The winning candidate will be announced in October.

In recent months OMA have also designed offices with a sliding facade, a performance institute in New York and a contemporary arts centre in Moscow. Rem Koolhaas gave Dezeen a quick introduction to that project, which you can watch here.

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Here’s some extra information from OMA:

OMA designs 2022 Floriade masterplan for Holland Central

As part of a team including the province of South Holland, eight local municipalities, and ARCADIS, OMA has designed a 60-hectare masterplan proposal for Floriade – the biggest horticultural expo in Europe – in 2022. Held every ten years since 1960, and attracting an average of 2 million visitors from around the world, 4 different cities across the Netherlands are competing to host the next Floriade.

OMA is representing Holland Central, with a site in the middle of the Randstad, in Zoetermeer, with 5 million inhabitants in a 50km radius. OMA has designed a circular plan that connects a variety of existing conditions on the site, all presently related to horticulture: high-tech green houses, a future agro-innovation campus, an Olympic-grade leisure park and traditional Dutch landscape near the source of the river Rotte, which visitors can explore by bike or by boat. The design focuses the fair’s activities into five concentrated zones covering essential aspects of modern horticulture: technology, innovation, the global market, leisure, and culture. The park includes a 2,500-seat open-air theatre, a Land Art zone, global village, and a cable-car connection spanning across the ring.

The winning bid will be announced at the end of the current Floriade, now taking place in Venlo, in October.

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by OMA appeared first on Dezeen.

Dutch architects MVRDV have proposed extending the city of Almere into a lake by building a square-shaped artificial peninsula covered in gardens (+ slideshow).

The 45 hectare extension is part of the Dutch city’s bid to host the World Horticultural Expo in 2022 and would host the six-month festival as well as providing land to build a new university plus offices, homes and leisure facilities.

Designs for the exhibition comprise a patchwork of gardens that the architects have called a “plant library” as well as a series of pavilions and greenhouses.

Once the expo is over, the green development would provide a permanent addition to the fast-developing city that was first established in 1976 on the outskirts of Amsterdam.

“We dream of making green cities,” says Winy Maas of MVRDV. “A city that is literally green as well as ecological. A city that produces food and energy, cleans its own water, recycles waste and holds a great biodiversity.”

The winning candidate is expected to be announced in October.

MVRDV have come up with a series of design concept for Almere, including a series of artificial islands and a neighbourhood based on a string of beads.

Winy Maas also chatted to Dezeen about their UK house project Balancing Barn in an interview we filmed last year. Watch the movie »

See all our stories about MVRDV »

Here’s some more information from MVRDV:

The City of Almere presents its plans for the Floriade 2022 candidature. Almere is one of the four Dutch cities left in the race for the prestigious horticultural Expo which takes place once every ten years in the Netherlands and is currently open in Venlo. The MVRDV plan for Almere is not a temporary expo site but a lasting green Cité Idéale as a green extension of the existing city centre. The waterfront site opposite the city centre will be developed as vibrant new urban neighbourhood and giant plant library which will remain after the expo. The ambition is to create a 300% greener exhibition than currently standard, both literally green and sustainable: each program on the site will be combined with plants which will create programmatic surprises, innovation and ecology. The site with a vast program such as a university, hotel, marina, offices and homes will at the same time be more urban than any other Floriade has been before, literally constructing the green city. The Nederlandse Tuinbouwraad (NTR) will decide in October which city will be organising the next Floriade in 2022.

Amsterdam’s metropolitan area stands at the verge of a large housing growth. With 60.000 new homes the city of Almere will realise the largest share of this new development. Almere has the ambition to combine the urban growth with improved quality for its citizens. MVRDV proposes the ‘green’ extension of Almere city centre opposite the existing centre, transforming the lake into a central lake and connecting the various neighbourhoods of the Dutch new town. The plan foresees a dense exemplary and green city centre extension which at the same time is very flexible: an invitation to the Floriade organiser NTR to develop the plan further.

Winy Maas discusses the plan: “We dream of making green cities. City that is literally green as well as ecological. A city that produces food and energy, cleans its own water, recycles waste and holds a great biodiversity. A city which might even be autarkic: A symbiotic world of people, plants and animals. Can this symbiosis between city and countryside offer essential argumentation to the global concerns regarding urbanisation and consumption? Can we realise in the next ten years an exemplary ‘green’ city which realises this synthesis? And could this city be the Floriade 2022?”

Almere Floriade will be developed as a tapestry of gardens on a 45ha square shaped peninsula. Each block will be devoted to different plants, a plant library with perhaps an alphabetical order. The blocks are also devoted to program, from pavilions to homes, offices and even a university which will be organised as a stacked botanical garden, a vertical eco-system in which each class room will have a different climate to grow certain plants. Visitors will be able to stay in a jasmine hotel, swim in a lily pond and dine in a rosary. The city will offer homes in orchards, offices with planted interiors and bamboo parks. The Expo and new city centre will be a place that produces food and energy, a green urban district which shows in great detail how plants enrich every aspect of daily life.

MVRDV earlier developed the Almere 2030 masterplan and the radical DIY urbanism plan for Almere Oosterwold, and has engaged in vast research concerning urban farming, urban density and many aspects of modern agriculture. In 2000, MVRDV realised the Netherlands pavilion at the Hanover World Expo. Almere is one of four remaining candidate cities besides Amsterdam, Groningen and Boscoop region. In October the winning scheme and city will be announced by the NTR.

Program (selection): 45ha city centre extension with panorama tower, green housing exhibition (22.000m2/115 homes) hotel (30.000m2), university (10.000m2), conference centre (12.000m2) various expo pavilions (25.000m2) smart green house (4.000m2), care home (3.000m2), childrens expo, marina, forest, open air theatre, camping and other facilities (25.000m2).

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by MVRDV appeared first on Dezeen.

Japanese architects Junya Ishigami + Associates and Dutch studio MAKS have won a competition to co-design a visitor centre for a nineteenth century park in the north of the Netherlands.

The proposals for Park Groot Vijversburg include the renovation of an existing villa, new greenhouses and an outdoor stage.

The visitor centre is conceived at the intersection of three pathways through the park and will feature curved walls that continue the lines of these routes.

The renovated park is scheduled to complete in 2014 and will also include a 15-hectare extension designed by a team of landscape architects.

Junya Ishigami recently filled an exhibition room with an invisible installation – watch a movie about it here.

Here’s some more text from MAKS:

Junya.Ishigami + Associates and MAKS / Marieke Kums have been selected for a set of architectural interventions for Park Groot Vijversburg in Tytsjerk, The Netherlands.

Park Groot Vijversburg, located in the north of Holland was established in the 19th century and contains a rich history of flora and fauna. A historical villa is centrally placed in the park. Throughout the year, the park hosts many events such as international exhibitions of contemporary art, musical performances, church services and excursions.

The goal is to design a new visitor center, renovate the historical villa, develop a floating stage for performances, and create glasshouses for the botanical gardens.

One of our main proposals is a visitor center, positioned next to the historical villa. In plan, the form is as if pulled tightly in three directions while maintaining a required main hall.

As the main hall stretches, it gradually becomes a path – naturally transforming into a park trail. This slowly pulled wing loses its quality of interior space as one progresses along it, leaving only its wall, until it finally disappears into the park environment.

In this way, the building establishes a large scale similar to that of the generous park, and at the same time, the enclosed space provides small scale ambiance and intimacy. This is our aspiration for the new visitor center.

This building is an architectural project, but it also can be imagined as part of the landscape.
The visitor center, along with the other projects, is planned for completion in 2014.

Parallel to the above projects, a Dutch team of LOLA Landscape, Deltavormgroep and Piet Oudolf will design a 15 hectares extension to the park. Tobias Rehberger, a German artist, was selected to create a second park extension including several new works of art.

Architects: Junya ishigami + Associates and MAKS / Marieke Kums
Location: Tytsjerk, The Netherlands
All engineering: ABT B.V.
Building area: 1,000 m2
Program: Visitor center / auditorium / gallery, meeting spaces & offices, green houses, performance areas

Architect Filipe Balestra of Urban Nouveau has sent us his proposal for a series of towers built in the swamps surrounding Mumbai, sketched out on a napkin.

Balestra’s idea is to allow expansion of the city without displacing the rubbish dump, recycling centre and homes at the city’s centre.

Urban Nouveau previously developed a proposal for sensitively revitalising slums, which was featured in the Dezeen Book of Ideas – on sale now for just £12.

Here’s some text about the concept from Urban Nouveau:

Bombay – maximum city, surrounded by water – is just in time to pick up an evolutionary strategy for the benefit of all. Dharavi – in the heart of Bombay – is one of the world’s largest urban villages. It contains the city’s garbage recycling centre and is the home of the cleaners, the taxi drivers and the people without whom the current urban processes are unfeasible.

What if, instead of moving the people of Dharavi to the outskirts of the city and using that land to build new housing, offices and leisure… all the necessary program would be built inside towers which rise from the shallow swamps that surround the city, branding Bombay with a new perspective: from the water. Existing Bombay remains as it is, and is incremented naturally. Pressure withdraws from the city centre. Dharavi stays.

Boats and bridges connect the shore with the new islands. The islands are easy to build because the water level is low. The respect for local flora and fauna is the starting point of this environmental and socially sustainable process.

Urban Nouveau is an interdisciplinary platform which supports an open network of human beings solving problems of everyday life. Urban Nouveau declares itself elastic to bridge formal-informal, legal-illegal, city-countryside in order to achieve appropriate balance in every challenge. Combining improvisation and intuition with research and expertise while performing on local and global issues, Urban Nouveau thrives on collective evolution.