A new garden-park for Palencia by Óscar Miguel Ares

Description of project by Óscar Miguel Ares

Public space is the place of relationships, memory and future memory; the place where citizens should enjoy the shared space. Many interventions - not always fortunate and with partial perspective - in the area of ​​Jardinillos, have caused a distortion in the identity of the park - thought as a reception room for travelers arriving by train to Palencia - but also an isolate area where rest from the city. More than being an area of ​​connection Jardinillos, at present, is a border element that prevents a correct permeability between the rest of the city with the train or bus stations. The partial interventions carried out previously have facilitated that other elements of interest, such as the Casa de la Música, the Palomar or the Romantic Garden, have been relegated to hidden spaces within the park. In parallel to these situations, Jardinillos has suffered a continuous process of isolation caused by the avenues and knots of high traffic intensity that surround it, and that its modification is not raised in this proposal as it affects the global mobility model of the city ; exceeding the premises and objectives of the contest.

1.-SYSTEM OF PLACES AND CONNECTIONS.- In this first phase, it is intended to recover part of the space "La Isla" positioned in front of the station, whose planning dates from 1875. However, even though this system served for the access of the carriages, so it was accessed in a frontal way to the station, this is not possible at present because the pedestrian connectivity is located towards the extreme south-east - where the pedestrian crossing is located on Avenida Simón Nieto - and because there is a whole series of PINUS NIGRA plantations at the foot of "La Isla" that we intend to conserve.

That is why we have devised a system of linked spaces. In addition to the square that recovers part of the space "La Isla", we cleared the south-east edge offering a new square in direct connection with the first one that would be the plaza of "Los Caminos", which would function as a large distributor of pedestrian traffic of the citizens who come from the Avd of Antigua Florida, the Avd Simón Nieto and the surroundings of the Plaza de San Pablo, as well as departing from it, this time in a clear manner, the connections with the bus station or access to the socio-cultural space "Plaza de la Isla" and from there to the train station.

This system of double plaza allows a direct visual connection with the C / Mayor and the environment, breaking the character of visual barrier that the park has at present. It will also serve as a meeting point for the prolongation of the c / Mayor in the second phase that we propose.

The system of squares is completed with a third one located in front of the bus station, in order to pacify the traffic and in order to improve the pedestrian connection with the park.

Next to the system of squares another one of priority roads is incorporated, whose object is to connect the squares with the most outstanding architectonic elements (House of the Music and Station of Buses) with the squares and by extension with the rest of the city. It also resolves the meager pedestrian stretch of the Avenida de la Antigua Florida, eliminating the parking spaces there arranged in favor of a larger sidewalk. We have considered keeping the layout of the romantic garden - so valued by the inhabitants of the city - recovering some of the lost paths - the one that connects the stairs to the exit of the underground access with the center of the romantic garden, according to the layout that still exists. PLATANUS HISPANICA -, as well as the water courses contained in it; improving its urbanization.

2.-ENDOWMENT OF CULTURAL AND RECREATIONAL SPACES.- Although the "Plaza de los caminos" is understood as the urban transit element, which aims to solve all the pedestrian circulations that converge, the "La Isla" square stands as a space of new centrality whose purpose is the endowment of socio-cultural events. We propose to complete the amphitheater for a more permanent use, such as the children's zone. In it the swings will be arranged, which are accessed by stairs or ramps located on its perimeter. During times of festivities, or on the occasion of the celebration of different events, it is proposed that the swings be dismantled and that they may recover their occasional cultural space condition.

The Plaza "la Isla" becomes the unifying center of all socio-cultural activities. We discover to the citizens a new space of relationship, based on historical traces, that return the presence of the station to the city and the traveler its discovery. In it you can concentrate many cultural and sports events, given its breadth. Not only at the south end is the children's area, but also the future positioning of the bar-restaurant, the terraces, chat areas around the existing trees, explanatory posters of the city, wi-fi provision and a sufficiently broad and heterogeneous space to be used by various activities. As in the whole proposal, it also has a "stitched" character, since it allows a more clear accessibility to the House of Music, the Romantic Garden, the train station - extending the space from square to the edge same of the building and thus get the predominance of pedestrians in front of road traffic - to the Plaza de la Caminos and by extension to the entire city.

Another novelty that we propose is to transform the garden that is behind the house of music in order to generate a cultural-recreational environment for young people. At the north end would be the youth zone (skate track, playground and culture), to the east the Casa de la Música and to the south the connection between the Plaza de la Isla and the bus station. The intention is to provide this space with a function, such as a large recreational meadow for young people; without paths and like the Anglo-Saxon urban parks.

All the intervention will maintain mobility criteria so that said space can be considered as a Friendly City with the Elderly, according to the cirteries established by the WHO (http://www.ciudadesamigables.imserso.es).

The vegetation of great size, and its height, facilitates the shading of the park - of great leafiness in some of the parts - for what we have not believed advisable to endow to the area of ​​complementary shade areas, that always suppose an economic waste its construction and especially its maintenance.