Central Park
In the last ten years, Sant Cugat del Vallès has seen its population increase from three originally rural sectors.
The park we present occupies one of these three sectors, the one called Sant Domènec-Colomer. It is a narrow and long strip that extends from the centre of the town to one of the nearby hills, being traversed longitudinally by a stream.
Urban planning focuses on two main issues: the concentration of the green area in a central strip that protects the stream, and the adaptation of the road layout and the building to the morphology of the site.
Based on this, the park project takes into account the topography of the small valley on which it is located, its agricultural nature and the strong social pressure that its urban immersion entails.
The main road, which is parallel to the park, is designed according to two different traces: a rectilinear one, which proposes a clear geometric order, and the sinusoidal one, adapting to the existing layouts.
The curvilinear route is broken down into a staggered section which, while maintaining a minimum sidewalk, allows a mid-height promenade to be attached between the park and the street. This promenade, which provides occasional access to the park, is the most urban alternative of the project, becoming a viewpoint over the park and over the city.
Inside, the path of the stream is restored, which is accompanied by a path roughly parallel to it, allowing the whole sector to be traversed longitudinally. A system of transverse paths, following the agricultural subdivision, completes the connection with the perimeter limits.
The vegetation evokes the specific ecosystems of the area: alignment of deciduous leaves on the stream and the longitudinal path, evergreen on the transverse paths, small evergreen forests on the demarcation of the fields and various types of grasses in the fields.
Rambla del Celler and Park System
The Sant Cugat park system is the result of the development of a series of partial plans around the Monastery, carried out over the last few years based on a common idea: the project of free spaces as the genesis of the form of city. This idea has allowed us to adapt to various situations, to contradictory plans that have already been approved, or to the disaggregation into infinite forms of execution with very changing promoters and budgets. The parks system project already had the global treatment of all the open spaces of the various developments and the preservation of the memory of the place as its main objective. Through the discussion of the different urbanisation projects and the establishment of homogeneous criteria, the aim was to overcome the individuality of each order to obtain an argument that only with vegetation and pavements would become, apparently, something prior to construction of city.
The definition of the checkered grids, which are assumed to generate the layout of the streets, and the grass area that equally covers both the parks and the linear parterres or the squares, aim to create a unitary image of the entire sector. This unit is reinforced by the desire to obtain continuity for pedestrians and bicycles throughout the park system.
The Riera Park is the last piece of this park system and allows the physical and visual connection with the Torre Negra natural area and the Collserola mountain range. The Riera Park is designed based on the same arguments, taking advantage of the existing ponds and the presence of the open watercourse.
The modification of the topography on the banks of the stream gives rise to a series of lamination ponds that reduce the speed of the water and that enable the growth of riverside species. A series of bridges allow both sides of the watercourse to be connected, enabling the contemplation of this typical landscape of our country.