Portal de Cartagena
www.portaldecartagena.com
The final work of the new architect by UPCT Alfonso Bernal Gallego proposes moving the container terminal and reconfiguring the neighborhood "so that it recovers its relationship with the natural elements that define it"
Three swimming areas, a large urban park of 230,000 square meters, artificial wetlands to purify water and the urbanization of the waterfront of the Santa Lucía neighborhood are some of the proposals included in the Final Project of Studies 'La Isla', by the new architect by the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) Alfonso Bernal Gallego.
The meticulous work, directed by Marcos Ros and Fernando García, is part of the transfer of the Santa Lucia container terminal and demands that the city opens out to the sea.
"In Escombreras there is more space available and cargo capacity than the current terminal and it is time that Cartagena, who have had restricted access to the bay in the last two hundred years, recover public spaces along the coast," he reasons. the student, who studied and georeferenced the evolution of the port of Cartagena since 1799. "Of the 18 linear kilometers of port, there is only one public space and is basically intended for the marina," he argues.
In contrast, its design extends the promenade from El Batel to the beginning of the La Curra dock, allowing it to be possible to travel alongside the fishing port's boats and the current container terminal, which would host a large beach for sunbathing and up to three bathing areas, as well as extensive landscaped walks that would counteract the scarcity of green spaces in the city.
In total, the projected action would cover 300,000 square meters and would regenerate the Santa Lucía neighborhood widely, with new public squares in front of the fish market and the church, which would, as originally, have access to the sea through a walk.
The ramblas of the neighborhood would also be recovered and the abandoned blocks of the waterfront would be urbanized.
"For the park to work, it must be integrated into the neighborhood and that means dignifying it by connecting it with the natural elements that define it, such as the sea and the ramblas, but also maintaining the memory of its port activity," he says. Now a student at the Polytechnic.
His project would keep as an architectural milestone the container cranes, recreates the railway lines connecting the different industries through roads, and reproduces with sewage plants the geometry of the ore mounds that accumulated in the Pedreño quay until the middle of the last century.
"Santa Lucia, which is in the best place in the bay, would go from being cornered to being perhaps the best neighborhood in the city.
The risk of gentrification exists, but it is something that I can not intervene as an architect, "reflects Bernal Gallego.
The student has also designed a system of water purification through artificial wetlands of sub-surface flow that would sprinkle the park with gardens of reeds and other plant species.
"The water would not be in view, would not smell or attract insects," he says.
The objective is "to try to reconnect with nature", he sums up.
From the container terminal the project also saves the shed, a huge industrial warehouse that would shade the paths of the park that would converge in a center of leisure and restoration with spectacular views of the bay.
Alfonso Bernal has been a fellow of the Urban Research Laboratory, directed by Ros and García, analyzing the urban planning of the municipality of Murcia.
Source: UPCT
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