On the Blue Summer Evenings

2017
Team Point of View
Gran Vía, the heart of the historic city. An axial urban centrality congested by the constant flux of visitors. It urgently needs to expand beyond its current limits. Our proposal focuses on the extension of this centrality, merging the great commercial avenue with its adjacent squares and streets. A new public space of reference.
An urban complex that consists on two sub-systems:
1. Gran vía and its side streets, metropolitan commercial and leisure hub
2. New perimetral belt, connecting the six squares and expanding the limits of the gran vía centrality through the following projectual strategies:
A. Greenscape strategy. Integration of nature into the city centre: Green loop, a gentle stroll under the shading trees around the historic city centre.
B. Groundscape strategy: Reactivation of the productive activity integrating new uses on the first level of the existing underground car parks.

Jury Point of View
This project includes urban green areas as the basis for the recovery of the city and its pedestrian routes, completely transforming the current image of hard spaces. The jury appreciated its proposal of solutions that will vegetate building walls.
The jury also appreciated the balance between the transformed public space and the newly generated inhabitable spaces. The proposed public spaces and interiors are of high quality.

2018-...
After the competition, the city asked the team to make a preliminary draft to adapt the original ideas to the real situation of the plaza de Pedro Zerolo (one of the 6 squares proposed to the E14 competition around the Gran Via), on the basis of which the implementation was then limited to an intervention on ground floor, since the City Council considered that level -1 of the parking lot should be maintained to its current state.
The aim of this renovation project is based on two main strategies:
First, the reorganization of the traffic, providing accessible itineraries, removing architectural barriers and connecting this new public space to the pedestrian priority areas that have been already developed in the surroundings of this square.
Furthermore, one of the main ideas of the project is based on the naturalization of the city centre, through the colonization of the spaces above the underground parking facilities with green surfaces for the enjoyment of citizens, under the shading of the new trees that will be integrated in the new public space.
The preliminary study has been submitted but not built.

In parallel, the association of friends of Carmen square –another square of the centre of Madrid proposed for E14 competition– asked to the team to make a study for its renovation, including the design of the ground, but also the refurbishment and change of uses of the parking underground.
The study has been submitted in 2020 and the construction is in progress.