Architect：Burgos & Garrido Arquitectos

Location：Gipuzkoa Kalea, Barakaldo, Spain; | ;View Map

Category：Parks/Gardens

The Portu dock is a large void that displays the traces of its own history. It is a place somehow blurred, but of great beauty and with an extraordinary potential. It enjoys of splendid views of the firth from its highest point, and of a leafy and wild horizontal landscape from its inferior level. In its South it is diagonally crossed by the railway which transforms it into two unconnected platforms.

The East slope of the Arrontegi Mount, artificially cut, finds the large esplanade located at the edge of the firth, where the industrial facilities of the Belgian-French Company were hosted in the past.

The project remarks the qualities of both places- the top terrasse and the lower esplanade- and it eliminates the fracture that exists between the two with a new topography that connects the firth’s edge and Barakaldo’s urban front. The park formalizes three strips: [a] the upper large terrasse planted with trees; [b] the slope upholstered with wild vegetation that resolves the unevenness and hosts the accesses; and [c] a large esplanade with trails that weave to each other around grasslands to be used for any activity. The esplanade works as a scenery where everything can happen, from a football match, a walk, a meeting between young people to a celebration.

The park’s trails and paths connect with the urban trails. They extend to the North towards the Basque Coast’s rute, the fluvial park of Galindo’s river; and to the South, it connects with the Lutxana path that enters to the city centre and closes off a pedestrian and cyclist ring surrounding Barakaldo.

The project is an open proposal. It avoids limiting and determining its future uses and allows for a great variety of activities. It builds up the support for a live and changing space, whose definitions and transformations demand the citizen’s participation. It is sustainable, and careful with the resources’ exploitation, and it employs low cost and maintenance solutions. Its design implements an efficient water use and limits the energy consumption throughout its construction and preservation. It is designed for the many different age and social groups, but it does not create a segregation between them. It is a park for all.

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