PRADO PARK
In a plot with a moderate slope in the north east commune of Medellín, the geography is gently shaped creating sequences of terraces where vegetable, animal and human populations are connected around material reuse, generation of soil permeability for infiltration and the use of run off water, and the implementation of vernacular building techniques. The project is a metaphor of what arises, emerges and grows in a natural way, it is built upon the naturalization of cultural action as a vital principle in the future of the city.
For the first time in the city, the project interprets sustainable urban politics for construction, through three specific measures:
+Not to demolish, dismount the existing material in the plot aiming to reorganize, reassemble and reuse during the different processes of construction for the new park giving a new meaning to the material by reducing the pressure of residuals in sanitary landfills and diminishing the demand of new inputs.
+Change the management model of run off water in the city, for retention and infiltration of water in gardens making use of it in irrigations, enforcing the growth rate of selected vegetation and its permanence in time.
+Rescue the vernacular building traditions and the recursive use of second generation materials, in order to introduce to the community the public work as a model of construction.
Under the premise of reusing all the remaining material from the removal and the excavation made in the location, the aim is to reduce the traces of CO2 caused there, by:
+Decreasing fuel consumption and the emission of combustion gas required, to: make the demolition material available and import the material for the filling process and construction in general.
+Decreasing the fuel used in the extraction of raw material during the construction process. - Decreasing the consumption of arid material extracted from quarry.
- Conserving and protecting all the trees existing in the zone the project takes place. +Planting 95 trees, 135 plants 2.600 m2 of minor species in order to mitigate the CO2 emissions and to decrease the heat island effect, thus contribute to boost the evapotranspiration. “A park is not the cease of time, is not the relation with an unmoving space. The park landscape sums up the colors in the trees, vegetation emerging from the walls cavities, the stones barely held up in terraces, the reflection of the shadows in the facades... the clouds passing through the sky”
