An urban park in Alicante, Spain

auteur : frédéric bonnet & Marc Bigarnet
ouvrage : Topos n°30
éditeur : Callwey Verlag, Germany

Alicante, an urban park and its territory

The project, a urban park of 70.000 sq.m, extends within the natural boundaries of the Benacantil's hill facing the sea, the harbour and the old centre of the City of Alicante: the cliff dominated by the former moor castle, the ancient wall, and the edge of the vernacular neighbourhood. (see picture of the site).

The process: clear philosophical statments, open method, co-ordination.

In 1994, after the results of the contest Europan III, we went and met the City authority and proposed to develop the project. The original site submitted to Europan's participants was a small parcel situated near the fringe of the former military area of the Benacantil hill, which was then lying fallow. The program suggested to make proposal for the development of the whole area, including the very steep slope of the hill and its connection to the city. After a few months, we were asked by the "Patronato Municipal" (Municipal dwelling and building office) to elaborate a first general study, what was done and presented in the beginings of 1995. We first proposed a kind of urbanistic and landscape overview, what we call "general philosophy and principles for the hill of Bencantil", elements of programs and cost estimation, and a methodic "layer by layer" map representation, which was suposed to be the basics of our co-operation with the local authorities in order to determinate, step by step, the strategy of the project: what are the most "natural" areas, what kind of uses, links with the city and the northern side of the hill, what kind of materials and where, which strategy in maintenance, irrigation, what kind of vegetation and where, etc.? This opened process allowed us to keep on with the project till the proper order (in 1997), when the politics confirmed the building of the park as prioritary, with the Euros 7,5M cost we had determinated. We then realised the basical and technical studies of the park and its buildings, continuing to co-operate with about 30 people: client, municipal architects in charge with gardening, urbanism, cultural patrimony, etc, local neighborhood's associations, political groups. While the the project became elaborated technically and esthetically, its purpose became consensual in the city. The most important item became obvious: this fallow rock, kind of "wilderness" in the middle of the city, this sandy-coloured cliff was not only the symbolic representation on the blazon of the city, it has to become an urban park and thus would help the old city to be renewed according to the contemporary urban process. The project was aproved in 1999. The work will begin in the following weeks (late 1999).

The principles: a gradation from the city to the castle, idea of nature.

The project deals with three main principles: - The idea of nature in the very heart of the city: a gradation is proposed from the edge of the built area up to the top of the hill: setting near the city an urban or domestic vegetation (palm trees, lemon and mandarine trees, Myrthus sp., Bougainvillea sp. Mirabilis sp., etc.), providing fresh and shadowed garden in the lowest part of the hill (fountains, shelters, and wetsoil vegetation, Coryza sp., Acanthus sp., Veronica sp., etc.), using then the Carob trees, Olive trees and Holm oaks and Alep's Pine trees' shadow in the intermediate area, almost flat, heart of the park facing the sea, the vegetation ends on the highest points with more discreet so badly called "autochton" species, reminding the presence of the mountains surronding the area of Alicante. In this way the vegetation and atmospheres follow the "logics" of the site: fresher areas downwards, dry barren upwards. - The park tends to solve the urban problems of the dense city, providing new links from the beach to the castle (a pedestrian way stil doesn't exist), new connections between the different parts of the old centre: these are the paths (going upwards) and the so called "selvage": an horizontal path connecting all the neighbourhoods in the lowest part of the hill, and new transversal stairways between the main public staces (commercial square, townhall square, harbour and beach) and the top of the hill. The lower part of the park offers open spaces with different activities for the people livng in the dense vernacular township. - The projects conciliate the hedonist scenery of the landscape with the technical constraints: Assuming the legacy of the engineers from the 18th century, who used to produce landscape while designing channels, roads and harbours, all the technical devices/solutions in the park correpond to a specific sensitive atmosphere, a place to enjoy, to live in: The valley, which is the main access to the intermediate area of the Ereta, consists of a king of sponge slowing the rainwater process: made of retaining walls and shingle storage bassin, it provides shadowed plateforms oriented to the sea, the foliage centring the sights to the blue horizon. Seemingly, the "lindero" (selvage) path surrounding the park protects the houses from rainwater pouring and offers a limontrees perfumed walk between different spots of the city.

The buildings

There are 5 buildings in the park, which apear as being very discreet in the site. Near the main entrance, the park-keepers house is integrated in the ramps shadowed by 3 types of palmtrees. Just above, a laminated red-cedar shelter (400 sqm) provides a white marmol ground, where showerfoutains, rice pool, Ceratonia siliqua's and Clematis sp's freshness welcome the guests. Following along the valley, the visitor reaches the "Ereta" area, almost flat: a pub half buried in the ground faces an square oriented to the sea: in this very place the townscape disappears, hidden by the Alep pines, and the only remaining perception is the yellow sandy soil and the Mediterranean. Just beside the northern entrance, bellow the old defense-walls, the restaurant is a wooden building set as a belvedere towards the landscape. The wood was chosen because of its low weight (there the soil might be quite unsteady) and its colour when alterated by the sun: a kind of light brown-grey very close to the pattern of the local vegetation mixed with limestone and marl. The last building is the gardener's warehouse integrated behind the existing retaining wall of the path crossing the site.

The networks, lights and water

One of the main question was irrigation and watersupply: Without water, in such an exposed area, with such a barren shalky and marl soil, the park would'nt exist. The first project (1995) proposed a high range of human intervention (irrigation by gravity from the foutains, storage and filtration of rainwater) in order to save as much water as possible. We've finally proposed a more "contemporary" sophisticated device, which mixes gravity watersupply with driping irrigation and general computerized control on the whole area. The lightning take into account the rather high light "contamination" coming from city and harbour: it proposes a low level of luminance, but with specific qualities, as the optical fibers blue lit "fireflies" glass blocks scattered among the bushes of the valley.

The vegetation

The existing constraints of the site were very dificult: high albedo rate, orientation Southwest, facing the sea, calcaro-marl very poor and unstable soil. It took us 18 months to propose a full range of species and technics which would bear those conditions. The choice of 300 species were made by the architects, and confirmed later in the project by the agronomist. It takes into account the avaibility of "autochtonous" species in similar condition plant nursery, integrates the specific maintenance rules. The "garden" vegetation, needing more water and maintenance, is located on limitated specific area. (as for instance the "garden of the angel", dominating the sea, where we'll bring two Dracaena draco from the Canary islands). In the intermediate area is set a large range of local rural species (olive-, holm oak, carob tree), the steep slopes being "anchored" by a dense thicket and bushes (Genista, Coronilla, Euphorbia, Rosmarinus, Cistus sp., and herbaceae like Centranthus sp., etc.). The paths are shadowed or protected by limon trees (lower part), Tipuana tipu (medium) and some bushes (higher part) Zizyphus, Phillirea, Daphne, Rhamnus, Osyris sp. etc.; In the higher part of the slope is use hybrid technics from local spot seting of bushes and experimental sowing of high potential seeds, as used in the rehabilitation of local mountains.

A few datas about the project

Main data
- area and cost: 70.000 sqm / 7.552.183 Euros (+VAT)
- architects (authors): Marc Bigarnet & Frédéric Bonnet
- client: Generalitat Valenciana,
Consellería de Obras Públicas, Urbanismo y Transportes with Municipality of Alicante.
- client's co-ordination: Gaspar Mayor Pascual, Director of "Patronato Municipal de la Vivienda" , Carmen Perez Arquitecta
- architect (partner, description and materials): Armando Sempere Pascual, Alicante
- architect (operational direction of the work): Miguel Salvador Landmann, Alicante

- begining of the work: Feb 2000
- duration of the work: 26 months (end June 2002)

French Staff - architects:
Sophie Cambrillat, Béatrice Clerget, Fabien Dautruche, Sylvain Le Stum, David Robin, Dariyus Sworowski, Jean-Louis Zelverte.

Engineering:
- Structure engineering (wooden structures): ADC Structure, Paris (David Chambolle)
- Structure engineering (concrete): CYPE ingenieros, Alicante
- Watersupply engineering: Aguas Municipalizadas de Alicante
- Electricity and lightning engineering: Elpidio Vasquez, eng., Alicante
- Economy, cost estimations: Luis de Diego, economist, Alicante
- Agronomist engineering: Maria Dolorès Lozano, eng., Alicante

Detailed costs (euros, 1998 nov. without VAT):
- buildings (5 buildings): 1.870.795 €
- earthworks, retaining walls, paths, stairways: 3.345.536 €
- watersupply networks: 259.552 €
- fountains: 44.963 €
- electricity and lightning: 430.885 €
- gardening: 1.322.514 €
- urban furniture: 87.088 €
- work setting and protection: 190.850 €