- Area: 65 m²
Text description provided by the architects. The winning proposal for the competition, organized by the Town Hall of Mairena del Aljarafe (Seville), for the new Transportation Interchanger Complex, Hotel, Offices and Commercial Center. Connected to the station of Seville Subway Line 1, this project is a starting point of the urban planning conditions that current regulation dictated for this area, and in line with the conditioning stated in the technical specifications sheet that the competition managed.
Opposite to the solution proposed in the sheet, we relied on the program fragmentation and the displacement of the Interchanger to the north area of the plot in the semibasement, connecting this level with Subway Line 1 Station. With this operation we answer several questions. The ground floor is released of its use as Interchanger avoiding the interferences between its users and tertiary service users. The public transport moves to the first basement level without losing the ventilation and natural lighting, which gives a singular attraction to the equipment.
The principal strategy of the Interchanger occupation is focused on the facade facing the metropolitan area. Taking advantage of the plot´s natural topography, it is partially covered by a roof used as a pedestrian park, which connects and links the different uses of the project, offering an area of outdoor leisure.
The creation of a new public space revises the concept of a square and its meaning in the new city's urban scheme. To that purpose, the cover of the interchanger will be used as a park where a lot of uses are connected, including: the new commercial space, Town hall, Streetcar, and the general system of free spaces.
Below ground level, public parking functions on three, one for the Subway users and the rest in rotation. There is a clear proposal of connection in this level with the buses stops, taxi and Subway. It is a simple work system that avoids interferences among the different flows, speeding up the movements.
The the placement of the towers, which starts from the square level, provides them with a major prominence. They will be the elements of major iconographic charge in the operation. By letting their facades clearly arrive to the ground, They appear slender and clearly defined as they modify Mairena del Aljarafe’s new urban landscape. The towers have been solved defining its perimeter by means of a polygonal line. In this way, we emphasize its verticality by marked vertical shadows and a play of reflections. This irregularity of the perimeter also allows the image to vary when viewed from different angles. As a final result the project presents two sculptural and richly nuanced pieces, simple and immediately recognizable.
