Arrangement and design of Almansa Park

Pau Batalla Soriano and Miguel Martínez Castillejo (EMAC) discuss the Arrangement and design of Almansa Park, an urban revitalization project intended to create a transitional space between the city and a natural area.

The Almansa Park in San Javier is located in the heart of the municipality, with an area of 31,948.75 m². On the perimeter of the park block, we find the Conservatory of Music, the Municipal Dance School, the Official Language School, the Courts and a School, with the Town Hall also being very close to it. The park features a Civic Center, which has been expanded, and together with the summer auditorium, they form the iconic facilities that hosts the International Jazz Festival (25 editions) and the Theater, Music and Dance Festival during the summer (53 editions).

Parque Almansa / Almansa Park
Fotografía / Photography: Milena Alba

The San Javier City Council, aware of the importance of this space, which has accompanied several generations of residents throughout their lives, promotes a series of actions to bring Almansa Park up to the values that society requires today. For this reason, it begins a Citizen Participation process in which ideas and needs are collected, and in 2016 with European EDUSI Funds, the proposal was successfully financed and reaches an agreement with the College of Architects of the Region of Murcia to launch a Competition of Ideas for the Renovation of Almansa Park (2017), guaranteeing a rigorous and transparent process.

The park, according to the contest rules, presented a series of elements and additions over time that did not share any common thread, resulting in a divided and disjointed park, full of architectural barriers and mostly invaded by vehicles. The existing buildings, in turn, did not comply with current accessibility regulations, had poor energy efficiency and lacked architectural interest. A new program of needs was also requested, which included a new Winter Theater/Auditorium that would deseasonalize the summer festivals, extending the cultural program throughout the year, as well as a series of new uses in the Park such as inclusive playgrounds for different ages, a skate park, Cartagena bowling, outdoor artistic space, smaller parking area than the current one, an enclosure to enable night closure, etc.

Parque de Skate / Skate Park
Fotografía / Photography: Milena Alba

The proposal that won this process understands that Almansa Park should be a public space in which cultures are founded, a space that respects the environment favoring and ensuring equalities and social relationships, a place where ties can be strengthened with neighbors and with your own city. An open, flexible space without architectural barriers, where all types of activities mix, where both collectivity and individuality fit; that covers as wide a range of the population as possible, from children to the elderly, and that is inclusive, because only by responding to diversity is how we can ensure the full development of society.

Almansa Park should be a public space in which cultures are founded, a space that respects the environment favoring and ensuring equalities and social relationships, a place where ties can be strengthened with neighbors and with your own city.

Almansa Park has the intermediate scale between a natural park and an urban plaza, which places it in the area of the urban park. At its border with the city, and given the need to close the park, we understand it is essential that it does not become a barrier between two opposite realities (leisure/work, natural/artificial, park/city) but that the transition between both is occurs in a calm and progressive manner, therefore, the layout of the fence is removed from the perimeter and generates spaces of expansion and contraction, which create squares (meeting opportunities) in the spaces ceded to the city. As we enter the park, we look for routes and visuals that no longer respond to the city but to the landscape.

Three elements are established (fences, pavement and trees) that overlap each other, helping to blur the limits. Few materials are used: topsoil and mortar soils (which through drainage ditches and SUDS guarantee natural infiltration), colored asphalt pavements, curbs and benches of trowelled in-situ concrete and hot-dip galvanized steel furniture. Regarding the trees, the existing ones are maintained and complemented by species present there. A perimeter of evergreen trees is formed to generate an “evergreen” background, and the interior is completed by deciduous species.

Esquemas del proyecto / Project schematics Ilustración / Illustration: Pau Batalla Soriano + Miguel Martínez Castillejo (EMAC)

Regarding the equipment, a new envelope of the rehabilitated equipment is made (to improve energy efficiency), using the same materials as for the new Auditorium/Theater, so that a whole is formed not only on a social and cultural level, but also also formal, articulated around an exterior hall as an extension of the park.

Given the tight budget available, as well as the setbacks suffered throughout the work (pandemic, lack of supplies, price increases, etc.), the choice of few materials and those sourced from the local industry has been shown valid and necessary.