A park for Zaragoza
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
Blu sky shine. From west the wind called Cierzo blow strong from el Moncayo. A heavy bright sun warm up land. Water pass under the feet and flow away from Ebro river towards Mediterranian sea. In winter time it is cold and in summer time too hot. It barely rains. There aren’t any trees in Zaragoza. The iberic Salbuba, the roman Caesaraugusta, the arabic Saraqusta, today Zaragoza is changing quickly. New century is bringing air of future and the Zaragoza city is preparing strongly for it.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
1- Site place is interesting, very interesting. Ebro river, the yellow river, is near. Soil slow down towards the river, from +208 to +190. It is the first terrace of the river. There is water underground and we know that wind flow strongly.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
2- Roman Empire arrived to Saldua two thousand years ago, renamed it as Caesaraugusta. Roman Empire transformed it in a capital, take care of it, get rich and enjoy it. During the last two thousands years town grow up slowly, towards east until Huerva river. To west until Aljaferia palace. At the middle of XX century, only in some decade, town grow, grow and grow. Growth gets some empties. Today train passes undeground and it is absolute necessary to plant trees, alot of trees. Dryness must become coolness.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
3- Today, Zaragoza wants to speak again with his river, wants to walk, coolness, improve enviroment and life armony with nature.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
4- Cities are a kind of picture. Every generation draws new parts of the picture, cancels others, modifies and interprets it.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
Military settle of Caesaragusta drew cardo and decumano and from that moment town followed this urban planning.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
Arabian peoples taught us to cath light. Railway line left a sign of speednees. Today we want that a delicate, simple, light and natural veil settles over the town.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
5- A green veil with natural elements settles over Almozara, Delicias and Portillo site and little by little an dry and empty and almost desert place becomes a large garden.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
6- Each elements of the new landscape switch on over the veil and descrive the new “artificial nature”: water wells, paths, earth movements, vegetation, seats, lamps.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
7- The enchanted wood will develope gradually. It will be mature aftter 25 / 30 years later. It will start in the generated cells and grows up aroun them.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
8- The new Saragoza’s Park, The enchanted wood will be developed by following steps that gradually will carry to the complete realization of the Park and the definition of its characteristics.
© Marco Scarpinato . Published on July 28, 2006.
The development will be implemented by “developments’ cycles” composed from 8 makes linked by feedback processes
The steps are:
Identification of the opportunities and problematic
Determination of aims
Definition of the plan’s elements which will characterise the new Park
Determination of the weights of the plan’s elements
Determination of the priority plans
ocation of the areas of the priority plans
Realization of the priority plans
Management
The realization of new Park will be also a participative process in order to adapt it to the real needs of the stakeholders, as recommended by the United Nations’ Agenda 21 process.
9- “Think globally, act locally”: the realization of the new Saragoza’s is an important deal for the implementation of a sustainable development at the local scale.
The importance of the new Park is linked to the recovery of a dismissed area and also to its great visibility. The Park will have numerous visitors, as citizens and tourists, which will be informed on the innovative and sustainable solutions will be carried out.
Economic sustainability
According to the aims of the Park, economic activities will be developed within and narrow of the new Park (restaurants, commercial activities, etc.). Moreover, in order to develop the Park both public and private financings will be used.
Environmental sustainability
Plans and solutions will be carried out respecting the environment needs.
Natural resources, like water, biodiversity and renewable energy sources (i.e. wind and sun), will be used in innovative and sustainable ways.
Ethic sustainability
As recommended by the United Nations’ Agenda 21 process, the new Zaragoza’s Park will be developed by a participative process in order to adapt it to the needs of the stakeholders.
10- Vegetation
A wood for the city. Continental vegetation for hot summer and very cold winter. Specified for fighting the strong wind.
Composition: 1/3 evergreen (everlasting), 2/3 deciduous
Cupressus sempervirens, Quercus ilex, Quercus subera, Pinus halepensis, Ceratonia siliqua : Evergreen to defence from strong wind, regulation and mitigation climate
Populus alba, Ulmus minor, Salix alba, Salix purpurea, Alnus cordata: deciduous for wet environment
Quercus cerris, Fraxinus ornus, Fraxinus excelsior, Sorbus aucuparia : deciduous, for dry environment .
ARTS AND TECHNOLOGY CENTRE
1 Urban strategy
The project for the ATC (Arts and Technology Centre) aims at designing a proposal integrated in the park project, so that the building does not stand for an autonomous object but rather as a Landform including and interpreting characteristics of the place of the city.
2 Concept
1_A new Ecosystem will be defined by the park which will integrate gardens and facilities inside one infrastructure only.
2_The park will re-use the soil present in the area to define the new landscape reducing the construction costs as well.
3_The aims of the park are:
a the protection from hot/cold temperature and wind;
b a structure to integrate the facilities with the park: there will be an only landform which will hold the facilities and the park;
c the connections with the closer urban areas and the existing green zones;
d the organisation and configuration of the urban space creating a new generation of artificial nature;
3 The project of the building is inserted in the framework of the new urban structure, which includes the equipped park, in continuity with the trends and the policy of the development plan of the city. The idea of the urban infrastructure intended as a “extended intermodality” gets stronger, allowing the connections between all the services linked to mobility, the open space and the urban services.
The park, designed as a fabric, defines a new ecosystem of artificial nature, and it weaves together three main systems:
- The urban system
- The landscape system
- The digital system inside the urban space
4 The project of the ATC deals with the three systems, constituting a spatial device combining nature and artifice. The relation between arts and technology is mediated by the combination between natural and artificial elements, describing the relation between images and vision.
5 The position of the Art and Technology Centre establishes a new connection between the building and the street, between the street and the park, between the park and the building, this connection allows these three elements to blend and contemporarily merge inside the urban complex.
The choice to design the building in continuity with the landscape, using the existing gap height between the big via and the urban boulevard delimiting the Amazara area, allows the structuring of a horizontal piece of architecture in which the internal space becomes the extension of the external one.
6 The Art and Technology centre’s architecture is elaborated as a hypogeal space absorbing natural elements such as light, water and green.
Inside the Centre, the combination of these elements builds a new landscape made of light, shadow and reflects, and of tactile and visual relations integrating nature and artifice.
7 The articulation of the ground enters the building through a big inclined plane becoming an internal piazza, a place dedicated to temporary exhibitions, situated in front of the big basin and the auditorium.
Along the boulevard delimitating the Almozara area, the front of the building assumes an urban feature with the access to the arts workshops and the auditorium. Along the big street delimiting the Delicias area, the cover connects to the ground and to the belvedere tower, set up on the junction in front of the station.
The section of the building determines the story of the city and of the landscape, which interweave and interact inside it.
8 The internal basin is part of the basin system punctuating the park, and is elaborated as a “archipelagos garden”, hosting a system of islands, which are rich of aquatic plants.
The moving water, captured in the underground area, flows towards the park.
The moving of the waters combined with the aerial landscape constitute a natural cooling system of the environment during the enjoyment of the park in the summer.
DIGITAL MUSEUM
The digital mile museum is a continuous space linking floors together into one continuum. Besides that, it is a place of transit, a non-place. Digital media is quick, immaterial and fluctuates constantly. Our idea is to make a place which behaves mostly as a container for the media and the technology attached to it. We sug-gest a meter tall space, empty. The ceiling is the building: it allows for all configurations of space, enclosure (sound curtains on track), media settings (screens, workstations, projections…).the building is the media: today’s technology evolves too fast for us to believe that architecture would be the answer to the question, ‘what is a digital museum?’. We suggest that most of the costs attached to the digital mile museum would be directly attached to its equipment (rental would be an obvious extension of that idea… There is no need to own the equipment. All that matters is that the develop-ment of possibilities grow.