The new urban proposal by ARN / Arquitectos includes parking and public bicycle stations, a ticket office, restrooms, covered waiting areas, and real-time information systems. The new pedestrian street, designed "for lingering," features three pergolas with landscaped roofs, circular shaded planter-benches, linear benches that separate seating from pedestrian traffic, and small cylindrical benches that encourage social interaction.
The pedestrian street's pergolas were constructed with concrete and a green roof system incorporating recycled elements, such as ceramic building materials, to improve and lighten the structure. For the surface treatment of the public space, photocatalytic concrete pavers were used.
Dr. Caro urban bus interchange in Elche by ARN / Architects. Photograph by Oleh Kardash Horlay.
Project description by ARN / Arquitectos
This is a new urban space conceived as a place for interaction. A climate refuge where shade, vegetation, and diverse ways of being create a new cityscape that opens onto the banks of the nearby Vinalopó River.
It sensitively, accessibly, and sustainably transforms a pre-existing urban space lacking spatial or environmental character, where vehicular traffic predominated over pedestrians. It becomes a new mobility hub that seeks to integrate public transport with cycling, promoting more sustainable urban travel through the introduction of parking and public bicycle stations, ticket offices, restrooms, covered waiting areas, and real-time information systems.
Three low-maintenance concrete pergolas with extensive green roofs are integrated into this new pedestrian street designed for simply being. The benches are designed to allow people to enjoy the urban space in different ways. The circular planter-benches allow people to take advantage of the pergola's shade while waiting for the bus at any time of day. Linear benches define boundaries that separate seating areas from walkways, while small cylindrical benches introduce a more playful character and encourage social interaction.
Vegetation is integrated to create continuity with the natural surroundings, offering a view of the Vinalopó River, alongside which the project is situated. The green roofs provide a pleasant view of the space from the surrounding tall buildings. Furthermore, they offer environmental benefits, achieving greater thermal insulation due to their high thermal inertia. They help mitigate the urban heat island effect produced in these eastern coastal areas by the overheating of hard surfaces, accumulating less heat during the day and cooling the air at night. They also act as ecological sinks for greenhouse gases such as CO2 (an extensive sedum roof like this captures around 1.387 kg of CO2 per m2), retaining air pollutants, increasing relative humidity, and producing oxygen.
In the sales office and restroom module, the evapotranspiration generated by the green roof not only regulates the surface temperature and prevents heat from entering the space, but also acts as passive cooling during warmer periods, drawing heat away from the building. The green roof system also incorporates recycled elements, including substrates made with repurposed ceramic building materials to improve and lighten its structure.
For the surface treatment of this new urban space, a photocatalytic concrete paver has been used, which reduces toxic compounds in the atmosphere and eliminates the presence of bacteria and germs in the environment.
This project transforms daily movement into an urban experience.
