Madrid - Plazas (ES)

How can the site contribute to the productive city?

This site is part of a strategy aimed at encouraging urban complexity. The Council proposes an exploration of the interrelationship between production activities and the city as a habitat, with a view to promoting a mixed city in the consolidated central urban grid around one of Madrid's main thoroughfares, Gran Vía.
The traditional uses of this area (entertainment, shopping etc.) can be enhanced, while at the same time inserting new uses through the exploitation of sections of public underground car parks. The squares above them can be configured as roof terraces for the underground spaces which will re-emerge, providing new opportunities for activities related to production, logistics (loading and unloading) and urban enrichment.

City strategy

The Madrid City Council has commenced an urban strategy aimed at an overall territorial rebalance, with a special focus on the most vulnerable areas. This initiative is hoped to provide its citizens with a more equitable, liveable and cohesive city by means of a comprehensive, sustainable response to the challenges that our society must tackle urgently, albeit in a responsible manner in terms of the environment, the economy and social cohesion.
One of the most important aspects of the envisaged transformations related to the conditions of this competition is the development of a new, more sustainable Mobility Model and a new Strategy for Public Spaces that will make them more accessible, inclusive and produce a substantial improvement in to quality of the urban space.
The main strategic challenges of the city are focused on the following objectives: Stimulus for the productive city / Territorial balance and social cohesion / Environmental, economic, social and cultural sustainability / Improved quality of life and habitability.

Site definition 

Gran Vía was one of Madrid's major urban operations at the start of the 20th century. This new thoroughfare became the main commercial and cultural hub in the city centre and the trunk route for east-west mobility. In the back streets around it, however, there are several empty public spaces within the compact historic core, which show obvious signs of spatial, economic and social degradation. One of the main reasons for this degradation was the transformation of most of these spaces in the 1970s and 1980s into roofs for underground public car parks, built without consideration of the need for above-ground public spaces, as their design obeyed the technical and economic logic of underground infrastructure.
Three of these squares lie north of Gran Vía: Plaza de los Mostenses, Plaza de Santa María Soledad Torres Acosta and Plaza de Pedro Zerolo. Another three are south of Gran Vía: Plaza de Santo Domingo, Plaza de las Descalzas and Plaza del Carmen.
The City Council now proposes the total urban renewal of these spaces, including the possibility of intervention on the underground car parks and their access infrastructure (vehicle ramps, stairs, lifts, etc.) for a dual purpose: on the one hand, to improve the quality of the public spaces in these squares, and on the other, to insert new uses on the upper levels of the car parks, making them compatible with their parking use, which will be partially maintained.

How is Production Considered in the Urban Diversity Program?

Gran Vía is one of the world's big shopping and entertainment streets. This project offers the chance to transform an area where the usual uses of a city centre can be enriched with production of all kinds (tertiary, micrologistics, shopping, handicrafts, entertainment) to be shared and enjoyed by citizens and visitors alike.
Beneath the squares, which may be regarded as roof terraces for underground buildings, there are several levels used for rotational public car parks. These can be transformed while partly maintaining their uses, albeit with a new focus (partly for residents’ parking, partly for breaking down goods loads, recharging electric vehicles, rental vehicle parking, etc.). New uses (production, cultural, recreational) may also be installed on the top level after studying the spatial connection with the above-ground public space.
New uses are envisaged for the spaces that will be generated by this operation, on the streets and beneath them as well. This will provide added urban planning, architectural, cultural and mobility values to these urban environments, which have become increasingly degraded over the years.
In addition, competitors can also define the essence of a model for loading and unloading hubs in this part of the city, and decide where they can be installed on the basis of the newly generated spaces, with a view to the design of a congruent network that will facilitate loading operations in the heart of Madrid, making the most of their accessibility from Gran Vía, improve mobility and drastically reduce the impact on capillary residential streets in the historic heart of the city.
The proposal thus involves the design of an overall strategy for these spaces (urban strategy), along with a local strategy involving the individual design of one or all of them (architectural strategy).

Plaza de Mostenses

Plaza de Santa María Soledad Torres Acosta

Plaza de San Martin/Descalzas

Plaza del Carmen

Plaza de Santo Domingo

Plaza de Pedro Zerolo