ANA ROSA SORIA SÁNCHEZ . LETICIA MARTÍNEZ VELASCO . CARLOS SORIA SÁNCHEZ
Greenhouses have the ability to transform a territory at a stroke. They have turned western Almeria into a new landscape known as “the plastic sea”. As in a nautical chart, the tides and currents invade vast stretches and areas of the coastline and flow down to the beaches.
The proposal reflects on the very disparate casuistry found along the entire boundary between the greenhouse territory and the urban area, seeking to favor the coexistence and exchange between agricultural land and built-up area and the different users (residents, day labourers and tourists).
We allude to the strip of land edging the sea, to the contact zone between the marine ecosystem and the terrestrial environment to redefine the current border, the plastic coast.
the continuing landscape
Today, the existing blend makes it a complex and rich city. The displacement and relationship of elements through their similarities and differences, push the appearance of unexpected phenomena, uses and new behaviours. In this way, a third situation arises, generated by the product of two interventions, generating urbanism through its capacity to intrude on the existing and activate the desire to construct a landscape in continuity.
agricultural/industrial and urban shifts
The project proposes two types of displacement. On the one hand, it seizes the greenhouse object, changing or altering its intended use.
On the other hand, a second shift is proposed based on the main elements that define the coastline: the port, the promenade and the beach. Open, free, wide-ranging structures that enable the settlement of new relationships with the climate, the environment, the activity and the users.
It is proposed a narrative line that defines the transformation of some action points and strategies, which aim to favour exchange and coexistence between two worlds in conflict. The approach seeks to generate new opportunities of conjunction as well as to provide a new identity to the current border, to the new coastline.
the coastline
The movement of the coastline seeks to alter the conditions in which the links and connections between the different territories are produced. The actions are installed on the coast, sometimes going into the sea, occupying the existing voids and others establishing relationships with the consolidated urban fabric.
The project is not proposed as a solution, but as a shifter of the “rules of the game”, offering new synergies between the environmental, biological, social, economic, cultural and political dimensions.
The coastline becomes an ecosystem, paradigm of new metabolic dynamics between sea and land, place of application of new political and inclusive practices, which transform segregated sites into places of exchange, co-learning, biodiversity and promote inclusion.
the harbour
The port is a point of access, docking and undocking. It is a privileged space for business. A connection apex where industrials, logistics and nautical leisure come as one.
the promenade
The promenade is an element of the urban landscape. This open space in front of residentials are designed for stroll, recreational and leisure purposes. But it is also a catalyst for commercial and cultural events.
the beach
The beach is a part of the coastline: a place of exchange and conviviality. This space in the edge between the seaside and the built-up area, conforms to a zone of observation, activities and wellness.
proposal
The proposal on the project area develops a big theoretical approach by playing with alternative urban parameters, but at the same time it is concrete and consistent on the look-out for a new way of relationship between the city and the greenhouse object.
the process
Two structure orders and two envelope orders are established. On the one hand, regarding the structure, a series of precast concrete porches scale and organize the lower level as well as working as support for a second lighter metallic order that colonizes the entire first level. This second structure is the support of the first order of envelope based on solid, light and visually permeable corrugated polycarbonate panels (greenhouse space) that enclose a second order of passive envelope (living space) formed by a balloon frame structure and timber cladding finish.
Thanks to the greenhouse effect in winter and natural ventilation in summer, these in-between spaces represent true thermal transition zones that will preheat the air in winter, being stored in the base build elements, and will provide shade in summer, protecting themselves from solar radiation because of the installation of fabric/timber blinds.
the housing units
The proposed housing units have a strong cellular character as part of the system the belong to. Its structure is simple and clear, generating a “fabric” that encourages the emergence of new ways of relationship both between the homes themselves and with their immediate surroundings.
the greenhouses
The displacement of the greenhouse object transforms the houses from multiple perspectives. Spatially, complementing them by offering alternative spaces and uses, constructively, giving them an order and a clear logic, and bioclimatically, improving their habitability and sustainability.
the center
Integration Center and housing become part of the same system. A flexible system capable of absorbing different uses and different combinations within them without disrupting the general order. An ecosystem in constant balance, an urban and social condenser, a real metabolic system.
the patios
Three large voids invade de central area of the project site, communicating both levels, becoming focal points of attraction and fostering interaction between the different users. A second order of patios, of smaller dimension, play a more discreet function, providing privacy when needed.
the street
Greenhouses homes “fly” over the ground level that is now free to offer a different response to the city. A filter based on prefab constructions between the sea of plastic and the urban center. A social condenser that encourages the meeting of populations that, living close to each other, rarely meet.
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