A public space of metropolitan scale

The Park of Sciences is conceived as a public green space on a Metropolitan scale despite its size. The park is intended for recreational use by the general public for scientific dissemination and at the same time for recreational purposes. It is one more link in a system of public and semi-public spaces along the Palermo Railway Beach.

The project can be summarized in 4 basic operations:

1 – A system of pedestrian paths crisscrossing the park.
2 – A limit to the south, orthogonal, executed with a wooden deck, with permeable flooring.
3 – A boundary to the north, flexible, made of reinforced concrete, as containment of the ravine, impermeable.
4 – A system of programs of contemplation internal to the routes and of interaction external to the system of paths.
5 – The natural green landscape extends throughout the park reinforcing the interaction of all the elements mentioned above.

PROGRAMMES

The Exhibition Pavilion resolves the entrance on Soler Street and serves as a support for the amphitheater. Planned at a level +1.15 m., as suggested in the bases, it has a structure that allows maximum flexibility not only in the assembly of the exhibitions but also for the interchange of the most diverse architectural envelopes.

A central column and two tensors resolve the structure of the roof and a system of guides in the base and in the roof structure resolve the meeting pieces with the panels of the facades with which you want to experiment.

So that the change in the pavilion enclosure does not affect the identity of the pavilion or the access to the park, the structure of the cantilever is a green envelope based on Ficus pumilla (Enamorada del muro) and Parthenossisus tricuspidata (Ampelopsis) climbers planted inside the column, which also functions as a large planter that incorporates 4 m3 of fertile soil.

The Square of the Sun is the environment that remains when the removable device is not in use; the varied scale of the structure, which at times is at ground level and at its highest point reaches 18 meters in height, makes this central space an ideal place for recreation, exhibitions and outdoor artistic and cultural installations. The square is completed with a sundial that gives its name to the square and a water fountain with a 5-meter high jet that refreshes the environment and envelops the surroundings with its particular sound. Below the +1.15 m level, there are restrooms for the entire park, for both sexes.

The icon of ephemeral architecture is the Dismountable Device resolved through an Inflatable. Taking advantage of the request for a removable but not mobile device, we proposed a permanent structure that solves the iconography of the park, public restrooms, storage areas and also the engine room to raise the inflatable with air injection, thus minimizing costs and environmental impact.

The Inflatable allows a quick assembly and disassembly and, understanding that in any case the thermal conditioning would be necessary, increasing the internal pressure in only 30,48mmAq it is possible to solve in a powerful idea the requested building. The sundial tower serves as a crane, a perimeter belt of water prevents contact with the balloon and also serves to create a hydraulic seal that facilitates assembly and disassembly through simple moorings; finally this perimeter belt, although shallow, is calculated so that the internal thrust of the air does not cause the water to overflow and thus the seal to be lost.

The two Astronomical Observatories are located in the Bosque de las Lunas, which with its leafy Populus nigra itálica (columnar poplars) of great size and vertical morphology collaborate to darken the observatories and thus favor directed sightings.

We took reality as a project possibility and created a unique state-of-the-art park, capable of showing the world the importance of Argentine scientists and science.

CREDITS

client > Argentine Ministry of Science and Technology
location > Palermo Viejo, Buenos Aires, Argentina
built area > 35.000 m2 / 376.737 sqft
built area > 2.685 m2 / 28.901.498 sqft
project > 2014
construction > –
status > project [concurso nacional]

authors > Oliverio Najmias & Marcelo D’Andrea
collaborators > Axel Steinberg, Nicole Ini, Karin Zaleski, Carla Rizzo Castañeda, Daiana Saposnik, Sofía Curto, Catalina Delvecchio, Walter Palauro
assistants > Josefina Fitte, Carlos Jurado, Magdalena Gonzalez Botana
industrial design > Uzzia Desing & Engineering