EUROPAN VII. SANTIAGO DE COMPOSTELA. HONOURABLE MENTION

Our proposal is a sustainable city model based on the ability of mixed areas (those that integrate simultaneously working places, housing, leisure and nature) to create environments, not exactly self-sufficient but mainly balanced where different schedules do not leave empty spaces without use.

Working areas are associated to parks, gardens and squares created for this purpose. In this way, each one of these squares, turns into a space for reflection and relationship where public and private meet.

Nature, vegetation and water encompass the whole project. Deciduous trees are used to favor sunlight in winter, chromatism in autumn and the exuberant beauty of spring and summer. This is not about recreating nature but interpreting it from the culture and the ecology together.

Vehicles do not have access to every public nor private building. Their itinerary is limited to the perimeter of every area thus large pedestrian spaces appear. Besides, the problem of transversibility is solved allowing to pass through without any built barrier and framing consecutive landscapes.

The houses are placed above the tree and most of them have three and four orientations. The proposed solution for housing allows a number of them to have an independent access to the working building and, the rest, to go on foot to their job though a park. The possibility of working from home has also been addressed.

North-South oriented blocks assure the quality of every house while a 4-5 storey height guarantees an appropriate sunlight, an appealing economy and an image far away from the vast Anglo-Saxon Garden-city and the self-sufficient Villa-buildings. Our buildings are thought for social relationships. Neighbors may get to know each other and the relationship nature-working-housing is unbreakable.

DATA:

Situation: Santiago de Compostela

Project: 2003

Architects: Carlos Asensio Galvín

Team: Paloma Campo Ruano, Architect. / Esther Jiménez Herráis, Architect. / Francisco Gil Ortega, Architect. / IrineRinaldi, Architect (Italy). / Fernando Lozano Melero, Delineation. / Sergio Álvarez Bezoya, Modelling. / Sergio Castillo Tello, Modelling.