The interstice, the spaces in between "places" often over looked are typically where Landscape Architects in particularly work their mojo. Their presence most felt, when the intervening spaces that were once cause for environmental or physical harm are transformed into something beautiful, something usable.
A compelling new park built on a slope that split two suburbs in Bilbao, Spain is both a landscape cure and adornment. Designed by ACXT, Pau Casals Square is a dynamic of green space connecting adjacent neighborhoods with a source of passive interaction. The park transforms an area prone to landslides and takes on a strong architectural form intermingling existing rock with triangular concrete pieces and green space.
Pau Casals Square is part of a series of projects that Bilbao has undertaken to improve urban spaces in the city’s outlying areas, creating connections between different neighborhoods and increasing the quality of life for residents. These neighborhoods grew during the post-war era, when they suffered from poor urban infrastructure and disorderly planning, which created rocky unused spaces like this site along Jesus Galindez Avenue.
Its not hard to imagine the value this would bring to any neighborhood. Think of all the forgotten sites in your surrounding neighborhoods. How would the transformation of those spaces change the makeup and psychological effects of that area. This can be accomplished relatively cheaply and provide something positive, even if its only temporary.
+ Via Inhabitat, Platforma Arquitectura
Photos by Aitor Ortiz