Street Bio-corner

These brand-new street bio-corners will evolve from some of the existing street corners in Arrecife, standing out amid the arid landscape, and consisting of a big tree, a shaded area and seating. Street bio-corners are a contemporary version of the existing ones, adding new bio-functionalities, such as a local drainage system, clean energy, digital information, and biodiversity. Besides trees, gardens and places for people to meet up and relax, these spaces will include a sustainable drainage system for the harvesting, filtering and storage of rainwater, as in old times in Lanzarote, when water was a valued and scarce resource. Each street bio-corner works as a hydraulic infrastructure, in addition to being a public space, with a Wi-Fi connection and an off-grid energy system.
Our aim is that these corners will encourage people of different ages to come together, as well as making the city eco-friendly. The design consists of an assemblage of triangular modules and has multiple and varying usages, such as being a garden, a playground, a place to play chess with tables, an orchard, a butterfly garden, a location for barbeques, a platform for yoga, as well as having steps to sit on. There is a plan to develop about forty street bio-corners around the city, all of them in collaboration with people living in nearby neighbourhoods.

Arrecife, Capital of the Biosphere Reserve

The island of Lanzarote was one of the first territories to be granted Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO. Coinciding with the twenty anniversary of its declaration, the Biosphere Reserve´s office has decided to step forward and transform its capital Arrecife into a more nature-integrated city. In this way, Lanzarote consolidates its compromise with its natural conditions integrating the territory and its urban centres as a one living system. The first draft of the proposal includes a re-arrangement of the mobility system based on two existing roads that liberate the neighbourhoods from most of their motor traffic. This mobility system is complemented by the so-called Caminos del Agua (Water Pathways) which are the result of restoring the functionality of the former ravines, expanding their use with pedestrian and bike pathways. This new water-pedestrian green-infrastructure crosses transversally the city connecting the inner city and its communities with the waterfront.

Nueva Noruega Eco-Resort

This housing complex of sixteen touristic villas is organized by a combination of two types of “living-bars”: one housing unit contains a kitchen, a living room and a balcony and the other one accommodates two extra bedrooms and bathroom. Each apartment is the result of the aggregation of two o more bars placed at different levels that are completed by an “eco-box”, that articulates the vertical connexions between the bars, making possible a permanent natural ventilation and illumination of the whole unit, even when the owner is on the leave. The open space around  the housing complex, accommodates two types of landscapes and a natural (chemical-free) swimming pool.

Meloneras Kiosk

The project consists in the renovation of an existing commercial kiosk placed in a privilege location facing the Atlantic Ocean. The kiosk incorporates an outdoor terrace – the most sought after realm by tourists – leaving the interior as mere logistic space. The design strategy consists of maximizing the terrace area, while colonizing and transforming the indoor space. The solution includes the removal of the facade and the inclusion of a new floor plan with views over the ocean. The existing facade and roof is then substituted by a textile canopy that protects from the sun and raining without compromising the outdoor character of the whole space. The set of bioclimatic strategies and green technologies will result in an off-grid building.

San Isidro Bus Station

The necessity of a bus station was one of the conclusions of a Sustainable Mobility Plan developed by the municipality of San Miguel on the island of Tenerife; however, the site chosen for the bus station offered a very good location in terms of accessibility but lacked urban quality. The project consists of the design of an exchange station that integrates multiple urban “uses” and “users”. The design strategy consists of developing a public square that incorporates, alongside the bus platforms, other programs such as kiosks, grandstands, playgrounds and landscaping. The main purpose of this is to allow children, elderly people and urban pedestrians to share this space with commuters. The design also includes the use of a textile canopy—inspired by the kite surfing sails that proliferate in beaches nearby—that stretches across the space, providing comfort, visibility and urban identity for the whole area.

Monte León Villas

The project consists in developing twenty-six villas in a plot with picturesque views of the ocean and the surrounding mountains. The area presents a problematic slope of about 30% and a stone substratum that makes excavation very difficult. The design strategy draws inspirations from the valleys of the nearby island of La Gomera where traditional villas are placed on platforms built on the slopes of the valleys, resulting in a very charming and landscape integrated image. The design goes a step forward and places part of the domestic program inside the platforms. This strategy gives the illusion of a very low housing density when in fact it almost doubles the traditional one. The project incorporates bioclimatic solutions and sustainability indicators that include, among other things, green roofs, permeable pavement solutions, recycling strategies, a car club, and off-grid solutions.

Gadeokdo Tourist Island

The Gadeokdo Island is entirely devoted to leisure and outdoor activities, and will become a globally renowned environmentally-sensitive resort city. The proposed tourist developments are concentrated in three sites, where they share locations with traditional fishing villas that become “development anchors”. The proposed solution emphasizes a transversal occupation of the coast, leaving large empty areas of waterfront as landscape attractions and environmental reservoirs. A set of inland leisure facilities work as alternative attractions to the coastal amenities. Most of the proposed urban fabric is placed on natural slopes leaving flat land for leisure and agricultural purposes. Buildings and landscape schemes are part of the water management system, working as stormwater channels and collectors. The energy strategy includes also geothermal, wind, solar and hydroelectric sources and it allows a self-sufficient provision of water for 30,000 tourists.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria Waterfront

The project addresses nearly 40 kilometers of coastline, including east and west sides of the city. It also includes a sustainable mobility system as an alternative to the existing one. The solution incorporates two systems: one functional (heavy traffic) and another more oriented to leisure-wise enjoyment (light and public traffic). Functional mobility incorporates the existing by-pass and the major existing roads of the city. Leisure-wise mobility favours light and alternative traffic, including bicycles, trams, and pedestrians. Ten well-equipped parks are placed along the waterfront, as a result of the crossing of urban and natural corridors. Each park seamlessly combines urban programs and facilities, transport hubs and open spaces. By exploiting the urban possibilities of outdoor living and mass enjoyment of the coast, the project aims to condense and deploy the subtropical potential of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Calvia Coastal & Tourist Development

The municipality of Calvia is situated on the southwest end of the island of Mallorca. It has nearly 60 kilometers of coastline and it concentrates more than 50,000 tourist beds and as many second homes which total for more than 50% of the tourist accommodation on the Island. The proposal is based on the geographic system of “cavities” and “convexities” that characterize Calvia’s coast. The design strategy aims to recover and update the development pattern of the first tourist settlements where the “cavities” of the coast hosted tourist enclaves while the “convexities” were maintained as landscape reservoirs. This pattern is the basis of the vivid image that characterizes the Majorcan coast, and an example of the intelligent and sustainable development of the waterfront. The project also includes a model of sustainable mobility and eight tourist enclaves, each with its own unique identity and tourist profile.

Vecindario Commercial Area

Vecindario hosts the largest outdoor commercial area in the Canary Islands.
It emerged during the 60s on both sides of a main road that used to cross the town as it connected the north and south parts of the island. Nowadays, the situation is more or less the same, with more than 700 shops coexisting
within this very busy traffic location. The plan firstly consists of inverting the traffic mobility system by activating an existing bypass. This action gets rid of traffic and transforms the existing road into a pedestrian shopping
street. The second action consists of integrating four H-shape boulevards that integrate other large shopping formats (existing and planned) with direct access from the bypass. The result is a commercial area that integrates —in a complementary way—small and large shopping formats.