This is an unusual place, a beautiful meandering between Pamplona and old neighborhoods of Rochapea and Chantrea with a landscape of gardens and vegetation of beautiful specimens yet settled, in a suitable climate for the development of a splendid park to the public. Rebalance the position of strength with which man has been linked with the environment looking for a balance and a covenant is the ultimate goal of this proposal. environmental public park
This is a unique and sensitive site in terms of different requirements that must be addressed. We propose to restore the dynamism of a natural meander, in terms of its environmental role with the river corridor what means working the vegetation, wildlife and hydropower. We seek a balance between the needs of high-quality space for citizenship, river dynamics, crop exploitation of local varieties recovered by organic farming and environmental role of the park in the hallway of Arga. a river landscape Based on the pre-existing and doing a thorough analysis of the micro-topography of Aranzadi meander, we deduce and understand its hydraulic logic in flooding, suggesting that the park work with the functionality of the Arga River when the water flow increases, decreasing slightly the frequency of flooding of the gardens while simultaneously creating a river landscape within the park, a natural subject to the seasonal dynamics of flood water.
Water is landscape in the park. a new landscape from its history. matter of memory and future. We start with the certainty that the landscape exists, lies in its behavior and its history. We propose a strategy for enhancement of the potential and the traces of the place.
The territory has in its settings and behavior a past which is the basis for its future.This is an unusual place, a beautiful meandering between Pamplona and old neighborhoods of Rochapea and Chantrea with a landscape of gardens and vegetation of beautiful specimens yet settled, in a suitable climate for the development of a splendid park to the public. Rebalance the position of strength with which man has been linked with the environment looking for a balance and a covenant is the ultimate goal of this proposal. environmental public park This is a unique and sensitive site in terms of different requirements that must be addressed.
We propose to restore the dynamism of a natural meander, in terms of its environmental role with the river corridor what means working the vegetation, wildlife and hydropower. We seek a balance between the needs of high-quality space for citizenship, river dynamics, crop exploitation of local varieties recovered by organic farming and environmental role of the park in the hallway of Arga. a river landscape Based on the pre-existing and doing a thorough analysis of the micro-topography of Aranzadi meander, we deduce and understand its hydraulic logic in flooding, suggesting that the park work with the functionality of the Arga River when the water flow increases, decreasing slightly the frequency of flooding of the gardens while simultaneously creating a river landscape within the park, a natural subject to the seasonal dynamics of flood water.
Water is landscape in the park. a new landscape from its history. matter of memory and future. We start with the certainty that the landscape exists, lies in its behavior and its history. We propose a strategy for enhancement of the potential and the traces of the place. The territory has in its settings and behavior a past which is the basis for its future.
Previous state
This is an unusual place, a beautiful meander hidden between Pamplona and the neighborhoods of Rochapea and Chantrea where the local farmers have grown vegetable gardens withn the oldest biodynamic production in Spain. Nowadays, part of the plots are abandoned and the river has been forced inside a tight channel that floods suddenly. It has been kept as a reserve, surrounded by the river and blocked by several buildings. Only narrow service roads among the plots, shared by ocasional walkers and the farmer’s vehicles allowed for a fragmented visit to the place. The secular “soft” intelligence of the farmers, filtering the flood and ist solids (stones, trunks, trash…) through bushes in between plots, is combined with “hard” urgent solutions. Dikes have tried to deny the river dynamics and the fertility of the new soils sedimented by the floods. Topography has been changing progressively for centuries and the river beach has became now higher than the interior, encroching the riverbed. A channel which bed is digged deeper and deeper by the river’s energy. Aim of the intervention
This is the oppportunity to rebalance the position of strength with which man has been linked with the environment. There is the need of establishing a new relation between the river and the city, incorporating the natural dynamics and the production to the urban realm. The paradigm of protection is to be switched. Protection, against what? Are not the rivers the reason for almost everyone of the human settlements? The conflictive relation between dependence and defense is a constant in agricultural and urban environments. The concept of “catastrophe” is the revelation of a conflict that new approaches to nature should change.
In the urban context, river dynamics and floods need to become part of a public space that is given life and made meaningful by them, with positive instead of catastrophic consequences. We propose to restore the dynamism of a natural meander within the river corridor. We seek a balance between the needs of space for citizens, river dynamics and crop exploitation of local varieties recovered by organic farming. We started with the certainty that the landscape already exists, lies in its behavior and its history. We propose a strategy for enhancement of the potential and the traces of the place. The territory has in its settings and behavior a past which is the basis for its future.
A agricultural landscape. The edge of the meander, along the river, keeps its vegetable gardens, structured in different kind of social, production/integration of handicapped people and research/conservancy of endemic varieties. The subdivisions are low filtering bushes that allows views, following the tradition for dealing with floods. A river landscape. The micro-topography of the meander suggests a new temporary river course for high waters. Part of the park is a shared space among the river and the citizens.
The floodable forest decreases slightly the frequency of flooding of the orchards and gardens while simultaneously creating a river landscape within the park, subjected to the seasonal dynamics of the flood. Water is landscape in the park. In the river bank, the riparian forest is widened and the paths are kept high and without lighting, far from the delicate fringe of contact between water and bank, the richest in natural life. A citizen’s landscape.
The meander becomes visible and accesible, in all its variety of spaces. In the 2nd phase, the inner part will be transformed into gardens with open space to play, gather and celebrate, and stay aand contemplate. New pedestrian bridges over the river will link the park with the adjacent neigborhoods. Evaluation The park has been in use constantly during the construction. Agricultural plots were protected and kept their activity. Along with farmers and the people involved in the activities of integration through agriculture, the citizens had regular access during the construction.
The sense of ownership has been increased with the process of discovery of a space regarded as the hidden treasure of the city. Some restaurant serve the local “crispilla” lettuce and other specific varieties of the meander. The third user, the river has occupied the park several times as well. The most notable has been in the September 2013 flood, the biggest ever since the city keeps record of water volumes. At that time, the work was in the last phase of planting and detail finishes, and the only damage happened in the slope in front of the water entrance which still was not reinforced with the benches that overlook the river (now placed). Besides this, some stiones were captured with the concrete wall deflectors under the pedestrian bridge, and some small trees were tore down by a big trunk brought by the current until the walls of the 1st low bridge over the forest stopped it.
