Santa Bárbara & Genovés Park

Cádiz, 2005

Materializing the wind.

Wind becomes the matter of this proposal: an exposed park and a sheltered park offer a dual experience interconnected by a rosary of small facilities, an ambiguous threshold between city and sea.

This interface accommodates programs such as a childcare center, a coffeshop, a theatre, a visitor and research center, a gardening school, a greenhouse and a shade house, as well as an entrance to underground parking, that serve both  Eden (Genovés Park) and Eolus (the Santa Bárbara grounds). The most outstanding features of the nineteenth century park are restored and updated for contemporary uses in an atmosphere of exuberant greenery. Other elements such as the mid-twentieth century theater are re-imagined in the Santa Bárbara grounds and an open prairie is planted in its place. The Santa Barbara grounds, austere and windblown, also provide ample space for uses in open spaces, including the informal activities that always took place in this area, which until now was hidden from the city: fishing on the waterfront and bathing at the foot of the city walls.