2022
MCHAP.emerge
Bulevar Sucre
Bastidas & Salinas, mrpunto arquitectos asociados
Caracas, Distrito Capital, Venezuela
October 2022
AUTOR PRINCIPAL
Emilia Monteverde (Primary Author), Ana Valenzuela (Director and Coordinator), Gabriel GarcÃa (Director and Coordinator)
AUTOR CONTRIBUYENTE
Alberto Schwarz (Architect), José Miguel Sosa (Architect), Andrés Amelinckx (Hydraulic Engineer), Hernan Ferrer (Landscape Designer), Graveuca (street furniture supplier
CLIENTE
Fondo de Valores Inmobiliario S.A.C.A.
FOTÓGRAFO
Diego Arturo González León
OBJETIVO
The objective of the project was to restore an area of the town abandoned cause of unconstrained activities leading to the neglection and insecurity of public space. In this sense, the main strategy was to consider pedestrians as priority within the uses of the place, design boundary strategies for vehicular passage, widen the sidewalks to avoid parked cars and most importantly, dissolve the height of sidewalks to allow the fluidity of pedestrian circuits throughout the intervention area as one whole surface for public space.
The empty gap between the shopping mall and the container streets led to a newly unveiled gathering area. This was the opportunity to connect Sucre Square with the new vacant lot and generate a single smooth surface tailored to the existing topography with a new drainage system guided towards the center of the streets and allowing an expansion of public space for the various neighboring communities.
Using stamped and brushed concrete was fundamental for the pavement since it’s easily replicable and the local finishing of the town. Concrete urban furniture and stone slabs were used for the containment of sloping planters for the slope that rises above Sucre Square. The furniture was designed in such a way that it invites the user to wander and go through the settings randomly; curved benches and concrete spheres apparently arranged arbitrarily on the lines of the pavement generate the sensation of continuity and fluidity and invite users to think the boulevard as a playful territory and tourism confluence.
CONTEXTO
The Sucre Boulevard is an urban renewal project located in the town of El Hatillo, southeast of the city of Caracas. A place declared a national monument for its historical value and conservation of colonial architecture. An area with enormous tourism potential yet has severe deficiencies in connectivity and services.
The site is located in between a shopping center, which was built during the mid-2000’s as a massive structure that strongly contrasts its suburb context, and a small town from Spanish colonial times.
The space in between both urban development’s gave the people an opportunity to establish a spontaneous terminal, unauthorized parking space, and community meetings. It became a downgraded space with severe traffic congestion, a high-risk and insecure area for the community.
The economic crisis in Venezuela towards 2010, gravely affected most of the commercial, tourism and service sectors contributing to the gradual eviction of merchant activities that used to develop inside the shopping mall. Meanwhile, the town had a growing popularity for its traditions and gastronomic offer which flourished even more due to the need for open space and recreational activities encouraged during the pandemic.
When the terminal was displaced to a point with greater accessibility, the area freed up increasing the town's public space and generating a strategic connection between the commercial center and the town's activities.
ACTUACIÓN
The town of El Hatillo is a place that allowed us to imagine a sensitive relationship between tradition and innovation. In this sense, materials were the variable that established associations with pre-existing buildings and heritage. Due to the location and amplitude of the site, an opportunity appeared to experiment with geometry, redefining the existing flows and activities.
First, due to the radial pavement design, which relates the surrounding buildings and squares, a strategy that accomplished a common ground for the smaller commercial activities of the town and the shopping mall. It has made way to new areas that have become the determined places for traditional ephemerides and sporting activities that occurred uncomfortably in Bolivar Square.
In addition, the concept determined as the "zero elevation" tactic during the design process as the dissolution of the sidewalks to generate a single smooth surface that gives a greater priority to pedestrians, has unexpectedly encouraged the community to organize outdoor activities closing some of the streets to limit the passage of vehicles and promote greater pedestrian flow in the town.
Furthermore, the project sought to generate a clearer connection between the town and the shopping center by using the parking lot infrastructure as a key point to reduce vehicular flow and displace parked cars from the streets. Although, the second phase in front of the parking lot access was left pending, the initiative has promoted greater control over the vehicular flow within the town and encourage tourists to park in the mall.