Aprile Maggio - Gruppo Torsanlorenzo

LA PROGETTAZIONE PAESAGGISTICA
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nella trasformazione del territorio The Salou’s Platja Llarga it’s a place where you feel the present of the nature; a part of coast where water, sand
and rock meets each other under an excellent pine-forest splashed by majestic trees, palmettos and agaves.
The main topic of the project has been to define an organization of the public used coastal fringe, Salou’s Platja
Llarga. The intent, recovering the beach and its original dimension, has been to give back its primigenial image with
a new dune systems and its dune vegetation of teucrium, narcissus and tamrisks, consolidating the “sea-land limit”
border zone. We succeeded in that intent with two different steps: redefine the dune skyline and bounding of the
dune with plants. The final result of this designing act is the discovering of the researched landscape.
The pine forest, the natural amphitheatre, the dry stone walls, the red rocks, the promenades and the shrubs scent
create completely new atmospheres along the beach.
Besides, the continuity and the accessibility is answered for. The purpose fits perfectly the site and its main characteristics,
defining in this way a design which is the result of a dialog with the site and a creative intent.
The seafront promenade is defined by a continue white bench and an oxide concrete pavement leaned on a sand
bed. The same element contains the lighting and pluvial waters and it’s a visual reference over the landscape,
designing a continue, tense line upon the site. Small rest zones appear between pines and the new vegetation.
The walls that manage water, contain slopes and control the security, have been designed, as the existent ones,
with rock extracted from the place and a maximum dimension of half a meter. A new vegetation concept (lavender,
bougainvillea, agave, hiedra, spanish broom, mastic trees and thyme) will cover slops and colored walls, and offer
familiar fragrances.
The promenade, among trees, corners and shadows will find west “bay windows”, meeting places or simply the gratitude
to feel the nature around.
A minimum dimension road, for driving use, incorporates a promenade for disabled visitors, guarantying accessibility
towards the sea.
Incorporated to this road, there are belvederes, “static” sites and alternating paths that fits to the place conditions
and potentiality.
And also everything is designed with the intent of a sustainable architecture.
Vegetation is an important topic of this project; it’s not used for an aesthetic reason but as an instrument to transform
landscape. The choose of the plants and the way of planting them defined the different spaces of the project.
With the use of the sand that we founded under the earth, it was possible to recover the original dune landscape.
During the first year, a biodegradable structure helped us to fix up the dunes and permitted the rise up of autochthon
plants, flowers and trees.
The specific species that we have planned are typical of the catalan coastal landscape. In fact, this plants adapted
perfectly themselves to the dunar landscape which main characteristics are their rising up without water, in sandy
and windy sites and resist to hot temperatures.
The plants are: Amophylla arenaria, Pancratium maritimum, Crucianella maritima, Hyparrhenia hirta, Teucrium polium,
Tamarix gallica.
Another important part of the project is the pine-forest; in this part we succeeded in overlap the border of the coastal
landscape idea. We tried to conserve the main structure of the pine-forest by using almost the same number of trees
(like a gardener would have done).
The first lines of the pine-forest which were beneath the sea got destroyed by the salty air. And in the same way the
whole forest was very old so we couldn’t guarantee their permanence.
To solve these problems, the proposal incorporate and complement the initial pine-forest with plants to help them to
make it less fragile, protecting the existing trees from marine winds and, at the same time, to assure its permanence
and to reinvent the forest line with new shades and colors.
The new vegetation is formed by specific trees to resist the hard conditions of the Mediterranean coastal zone. So
the new species planted are: Tamarix gallica, Acacia dealbata, Cupressus sempervirens, Pinus pinea.
The main idea is to respect the orography of the place, adapting the project to it. So there are some soft slopes and
ramp paths where vegetation appears as a tool to merge this interventions.
To cover the slopes and walls it has been used some scented species for maintaining in some way the character of
the place: Lavandula stoechas, Rosmarinum officinalis, Thymus vulgaris, Agave americana, Spartium junceum,
Bougambilia glabra, Hedera helix, Pistacia lentiscus, Cistus albidus, Pinus pinea.
The vegetation also allow spaces which separate the dynamics of the beach to approach them to surrounding
urbanizations. The public park located in the eastern end of the beach is an example of it, where we found arboreal
species that offer shadows to the travelers and shrubs with beautiful colors. This species are: Pinus pinea,
Tipuana tipu, Chamaerops humilis, Lavandula stoechas, Rosmarinum officinalis, Thymus vulgaris, Bougambilia
glabra.
The works of the promenade started on February 16 th 2004 and finished on February 7 th 2005.
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NTERNAZIONALE TORSANLORENZO” 2006
“PREMIO
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” 2006