OFFICETWENTYFIVEARCHITECTS

Architects: Héctor Fernández Elorza + Manuel Fernández Ramírez
Location: Zaragoza, Spain
Project Year: 2011
Photographs: Montse Zamorano Gañán
Project: 2008
Construction Start Date: July 2009
Client: Junta de Compensación del Sector 88/1
Construction: IDECON, S.A.U.
Project Area: 2.5 Ha.
Budget: 2,598,799 euros

From the architect. The green space in area 88/1, called Venecia Park, is located in its northwest boundary, running parallel to the Hispanidad Round between the Glorieta de la Calle Zafiro and the historic riverbed Canal Imperial de Aragón. The project encompasses an urban infrastructure with a linear character, 415 meters long and 60 meters wide, with an area of approximately 2.5 hectares. It solves three problems: noise and acoustics, rainwater drainage, and topography.
The noise caused by road traffic on Hispanidad Round to the adjoining dwellings requires the design of an acoustic barrier covering the entire northwest edge of the park. The topographic elevation between the platform of the new neighborhood and the Round reaches a maximum height of 14 meters. We designed ground containment through a system of reinforced earth retaining walls. It consists of four steps, each set back 1.50 meters, made up of galvanized steel mesh and large pebble stones, thus forming a sound barrier to protect the future residential area.
On the southwestern corner of the park, where there is no significant topographical difference, the acoustic containment system is designed by means of a cyclopean wall 100 meters long and 10 meters high. This wall is also designed as an icon that gives character to the new neighborhood and serves as access to the square underground or rainwater collection system outside.
The rainwater collection system is sized to cope with the intense rain flows on the area, thus preventing direct discharge of this water into the municipal network, which has an insufficient diameter and capacity. This large area (3,150 m2), to be used as a rainwater collection space subject to the frequency and intensity of rainfall, has been conceived and designed as an urban space or pedestrian plaza sheltered from the uncomfortable north wind in this high part of the city, so it can be used by citizens for most of the year.
Four stairs located at the corners of this infrastructure allow access to the underground square, the connection with the neighborhood platform and the city level. The addition of ramps sufficiently wide, located in the thickness of the acoustic wall, allow access for service or maintenance vehicles and a wider use of the site.
Finally, Venecia Park is a careful topographic operation that complements the acoustic and rainwater collection functions, which also incorporates new green spaces for the city. All this is spatially articulated on Hispanidad Round, with stepped and interconnected platforms, in a concatenation of linear or elongated squares (hard and soft), viewpoints protected with light, metallic pergolas, vast groves of pine trees, and pedestrian communication ramps with the Historic Canal Imperial de Aragón.