View point + Square / Avenue + Train Station + Parking, Elche
The Design of an Oxymoron.
In 2009 our office won the International competition for the Mirador del Palmeral (Palm Grove’s Viewpoint), in Elche, Spain with the simplest proposal, yet the most controversial project the office had ever undertaken up to this point. We worked on the project for almost 2 years until a change in the political composition of the City Government stopped it*.
*The project got cancelled after the change of government in the municipal elections of 2011 where the left-wing party lost against the right-wing party for the first time in the history of democracy in Spain.
The two-phased competition received a lot of attention, not only because renowned firms such as MVRDV, SANAA, Foster, Abalos+Sentkiewicz, and Lapeña&Torres were invited to participate, but because our office, as a young and “unknown” office getting through the first, open phase, won the competition eventually, and that even with a strategy, rather than a design.
We trusted the simplicity of a Ferris wheel to meet all the requirements of the brief and more, which surprised and convinced a jury and the City Mayor (who became its strongest supporter), that architectural thinking is stronger than even architecture itself.
The Mayor of Elche organized the competition with the requirement that the project should “provide the city with an EMBLEMATIC element to promote the Palmeral of Elche” (quote from the competition brief). This raised the challenge of designing a humble icon, and icon that deviated the attention to something else, which is a true oxymoron.
In our careers as architects, the competition for the Mirador del Palmeral was our first chance to create an emblem for the city in which the landscape plays a crucial role, whereby evoking admiration for this landscape is the raison d’être of the icon.
Moreover, in this period of financial collapse (2009) and extreme preoccupation with sustainability, it would be hypocritical to close our eyes and produce another icon similar to all the previous ones.
The cultural landscape of palms that constitutes the Palmeral of Elche dates back to the 10th century, when much of the Iberian Peninsula was under Arab rule. This great patchwork of agricultural plots (huertos) was listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the year 2000. The palm grove extends over approximately half of the area of the city. Due to the loss of its original use, it is becoming more difficult to integrate the Palmeral into city life. Most of the Huertos remain empty and are deteriorating. There is not a single viewpoint in the city where the huertos system of palms can be seen and understood.
By building this viewpoint, tourists and inhabitants will be able to understand the Palmeral of Elche for the first time as a system of “huertos”, and recognise its strong presence in the city. Although the intervention should not eclipse or even compete with the importance of the Palmeral, it should be significant enough to attract tourism and regenerate the economy of the City. Thus, we searched for an atemporal emblem; intelligent and flexible; capable of fulfilling these requirements within a budget of €10 million. We need an imaginative solution.
We proposed a wheel for Elche. The wheel is a strategy. The wheel is resistant to fashion, style, and time. It is a timeless emblem. Its assembly is completely reversible (if one day it might not be useful anymore). As the wheel does not consume the total budget, we can also invest in the creation of adjacent public spaces and the renovation of the railway station. The wheel is an intelligent and rational structure: representative and beautiful, powerful and transparent.
The Wheel is the perfect union between FORM and FUNCTION.
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Maximum Potential:
Mirador + Station, the greatest welcome to Elche
To explore the full potential of the intervention we propose a common building, housing the Mirador + Railway Station. Our design places the Mirador at the former site of Elche’s Railway Station, which was demolished in the 1970s. The new railway station was built on the same avenue, 100 metres to the East. There is a planned investment of €6 million for its renovation We plan to make a common investment of €16 million for a new common building where both programs share functions. This idea is feasible because the project is located within the double platform area of the train tunnel. In this way, the Railway station comes back to its original place: at the end of the Paseo it is named after. The Mirador and the Palmeral will be the image of arrival in the city.
Strategy in the immediate surroundings: Re-creation of Elche’s Palmeral
As we don’t consume the entire initial budget with the Mirador we propose to invest the remainder on the creation of a large public space in the current Paseo de la Estación, and a big square in place of the current traffic roundabout in front of the new Mirador-Station.
After studying the current traffic patterns in the area, we propose restricting vehicular access to public transportation and bicycles. Once the Paseo is free of cars not only do we improve the sequence of public spaces on the North-South axis, the spaces between the city and the new Mirador+Station, but we also link the two parks that are currently disconnected on the East-West axis.
We propose to keep the Paseo as a “hard” surface so it may host a large number of events, which would be impossible in a green area. Moreover, due to the dry weather of Elche, a green Paseo would require a significant amount of maintenance.
We have created a great carpet of tiles representing a pixelated aerial view of the Palmeral. This large mosaic will be visible from the wheel as an enormous piece of urban art.
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PROJECT INFO:
Date: First phase: February 2009 – results March 23, 2009
Second phase: May 2009 – results July 17, 2009
Type: Competition in two phases, FIRST PRIZE
First phase: Open International Competition, selection of two teams from 56 participants (145 registrations)
Second phase: Invited Competition (2 teams from first phase + 5 invited teams: SANAA, MVRDV, Foster & Partners, Lapeña & Torres, Ábalos & Sentkiewicz + Beth Galí)
Organizer: OCOA - Oficina de Concursos Comunidad Valenciana
Location: Elche, Alicante, Spain
Surface: 15,000 m² of public spaces + 1,200 m² of exhibition rooms + mirador –viewpoint + railway station 1,100 m² + parking 7,800 m²
Status: CANCELLED in June 2011
Client: Ayuntamiento de Elche (Elche City Council)
Budget: € 10 mill. (+ € 6 mill. already reserved for the railway station)
