In 2005 we undertook the project for the construction of the Ibarrilla Microstation. The objective was to build a station for urban transport that would combine efficiency and accessibility with care for the natural environment where it is located.
Once the context in which the proposal originates was raised, the main objective was established to establish a unique prototype of a microstation that was friendly to the specific natural environment and to the user of public transport, through the use of construction systems, work processes and sustainable design.
In the section of Talabarteros avenue and the intersection of Ibarrilla boulevard with Hidalgo boulevard, the implementation of an urban transport station was proposed. The reconsideration of the original proposal meant a lower impact for the more than 220 trees on the site: more than 170 trees were rescued and a precedent for intervention was established for future similar cases within the city.
The construction of this project began in October 2015 and concluded in May 2020. With a length of 140 meters, the Microstation is part of a 220-meter complex that benefits more than 2,400 users, and is a benchmark for four trunk lines and three feeder routes within the Integral Transportation System. 175 forest specimens were preserved and 29 of them were covered within the intervention itself, as a result of a comprehensive and specific proposal.
For the realization of this project, a paradigm shift was necessary and relevant in order to avoid the implementation-repetition of obsolete models, at least before the specific site, which led to the exercise of critical thinking and generated a series of questions on the way of "making the city" from the sensitivity and ecological perspective. The result of this process was added to the architectural solution in such a way that the challenge of providing the required technical solution was faced, both for the user and for public transport itself (its functional operation), without violating the forest heritage that is part of the pre-existing urban image.
The context was established as the delineator of the technical and design solution, and it was possible to wrap the existing afforestation in its building, with an urban language of rigid and industrial materiality, like the rest of the types of stations implemented in the city, but which in its particularity is compromising in the face of the coexistence of afforestation. Thus, the relationship of the architectural element with the sum of technical, functional, aesthetic, low-impact values was established, and it was integrated and added to the constant configuration of the urban landscape that distinguishes the sites from each other. In this way, we managed to bring a greener, more humane, friendlier image closer to the public transport user's daily life.
Beyond the numbers, the project represents a building of urban infrastructure, mobility and public transport that achieves integration and awareness in an urban context defined by prominent forestation, through the creation of an atmosphere of constant correlation between the interior and exterior of the work. Thus, this work is the firm result of rethinking the question: How do we make a city?, of reformulating viable technical solutions and of resolving in favor of the environment: of a green city that, after all, is in favor of everyone.
Category: Landscape architecture and public space
Project design: 501 Durán Arquitectos | Arch. Luis Miguel Durán López
Collaborators: Carlos María Flores, David Sánchez
