Reducing the built in favor of the natural. Magallanes Park by Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra

Project description by Guillermo Vázquez Consuegra

The land of the intervention is located on the right bank of the Guadalquivir River, bounded by the Navigation Pavilion and the Chapina Bridge on its north and south sides and west by the new route of the Path of the Discoveries. The edge of the river will delimit the perimeter to the east of the new gardens.

These lands, with an approximate area of ​​40,000m², formed the sector called Puerta Triana, South access to the grounds of the Universal Exhibition of Seville in 1992. It was a heterogeneous conglomerate of diverse episodes that badly lived in an impassable and inhospitable enclosure , abandoned to its fate after the term of the Universal Exhibition.

Asphalted and terrestrial lands, destined for parking lots, formed the western edge in parallel to the Path of the Discoveries, while some groups of trees of different species and different sizes, descended downhill until they found the edge of the river, but being intercepted by the elongated line of construction of the Rowing Center that prevented an open and direct relationship of the trees with the banks of the Guadalquivir.

The remains of the dilapidated buildings of the Expo next to this building of the Sports Center make up an almost continuous screen, a solid facade, built and built, of these lands towards the river, preventing the future vegetation, which could be extended along the plot, naturally approach the edge of the water.

The proposal aims to generate a landscaped public space of quality from the preexistence of the place: the horizontal esplanade, used today as a large surface car park and the sloping terrain towards the river dotted by the presence of some groups of trees, in an advanced state Degraded and abandoned.

In the general intervention strategy, the idea of ​​demolishing all pre-existing elements without constructive or architectural value will prevail in order to give preference to the presence of vegetation. Reduce construction in favor of green.

The proposal generates a new soil for this dispersed grove from the construction of green ellipses (plant set) that group the trees in forests. Among them, by negative, an isotropic network of routes is established, adapted to the existing topography. A walk, along the river bank, runs the plot lengthwise, facilitating access to the new Rowing Sports Center and allowing the connection between the Paseo de la O in Triana and the gardens located upstream, beyond the Pavilion of the Navigation.

Drainage is a key issue in our project. The drainage network is established based on the perimeter of the ellipses, designed as rainwater surface channeling edges (the entire pavement of the gardens is porous concrete), constructed by ditches that house a system of double drainage cells for enhance the infiltration of water to the subsoil. A sprinkler irrigation network will allow the implantation of new trees and forest coverings.

The action is complemented by the construction of the new Municipal Rowing Center, now next to the Navigation Pavilion, in order to free the riverbank from construction and with the location of a large umbrella that will house different uses, a new and suggestive space of meeting and stay. Conceived as a large metal pergola, galvanized and completely screwed, it is covered by a continuous climber plant. This element of three hundred meters in length and fifteen meters in width (the City Council reduced five meters from the initial project) builds a convenient barrier between the road of the Path of the Discoveries and the new gardens.

A project that prevails criteria of rationality and profitability as well as economy of gestures, well away from excesses and superfluous episodes. An adequate choice of materials, both for the construction and for the limited existing furniture, will guarantee at the same time the tight budget of the intervention as well as the low maintenance costs.

A project that tries to offer a great variety of diverse and intertwined spaces: sunny and shady, meeting and relationship spaces but also spaces for stillness and tranquility. Dynamic transit spaces and relaxed areas of stay. Spaces for everyone.