Green Space Badalona, Barcelona Play Area, Catalan Urban Realm, Spanish Architecture Images

A green space in Badalona

Contemporary Landscape Development in Catalonia, Spain – design by peris+toral.arquitectes

7 Sep 2017

Badalona Play Area

Design: peris+toral.arquitectes

Location: Badalona, Barcelona, Catalunya, Spain

Green Space in Badalona

REDEVELOPMENT OF A GREEN SPACE BETWEEN AVINGUDA DE MÒNACO AND CARRER DE VERDI IN BADALONA, BARCELONA.

A simple architectural gesture eliminates the fencing around a children’s playground

peris+toral.arquitectes architecture practice has designed a project to reorganise the green space situated between Avinguda de Mònaco and Carrer de Verdi in the town of Badalona, a site which provisionally hosted Santa Coloma’s Fondo Market.

The project resulted in the creation of a play area for children of different ages, situated strategically near the district’s schools and pre-school centres. A subtle architectural solution meets the needs of shelter and protection required by this kind of space. It took the form of creating two dunes planted with grass, creepers and shrubs that remove traffic from the field of vision, and designing a gentle hollow that marks out the play space.

The resulting difference in level in the play area serves a twofold purpose as a seat and as a work bench where children can play the imitation games that are so important for stimulating their imagination. As a result, the fences separating children from adults are eliminated in an integrative, intergenerational solution.

The intervention further strengthens the continuity of the green axis that runs from the river Besòs, linking various parks and plazas, as far as the parks of Montigalà.

The existing zebra crossings are connected, and the trees species planted in the area are preserved to offer topographical continuity that eliminates architectural barriers. Finally, with the aim of creating an arboreal mass, the area of intervention is planted with more trees of the same type as those lining the streets.

A green space in Badalona – Project Information

Superficie: 3.330 m2
Presupuesto: 95,5 €/m2

Promotor: Area Metropolitana de Barcelona
Autores del proyecto: Marta Peris, José Manuel Toral
Equipo: Ana Espinosa, Albert Rubio, Leticia Soriano, Izaskun Gonzalez, Eva Blanco
Paisajista: Albert Bestard
Instalaciones: Jaume Pastor
Constructor: Eurocatalana obres i serveis

Fotografía: José Hevia

peris+toral.arquitectes

peris+toral.arquitectes is a Barcelona-based architecture practice set up in 2005 by Marta Peris and José Manuel Toral. Both are ETSAB graduates who combine professional praxis with academic activity at centres such as the Barcelona School of Architecture (ETSAB) and the IED. Their projects have been published in various journals and exhibited at the 2016 Venice Biennale, UIA Tokyo 2011, Paris 2009 and the 2000 Venice Biennale.

Their work has received various prizes such as the 2016 ATEG Award, the 2011 AJAC Young Architects’ Award, the 2009 FAD Prize (finalist), the 2009 Saloni Architecture Award (finalist), the 2015 Construmat Prize (special mention), the COAVN Award and the UIA 96 Award, among others. In the last edition of the Eu Mies van der Rohe Award, 2017, their work has been shortlisted among other 315 proposals.