9/13/2010 Building a better city forest!

I saw this project CAAC / Paredes Pino  on Archdaily today. I really liked the overall design. It is quite interesting and unique. However,I feel like this landscape project could be more "green" and could work better for the community.
Here is the project:

This design is by Paredes Pino - Fernando G. Pino, Manuel G. de Paredes  and it is located in Islas Sisargas c/v Formentera c/v Cies, Cordoba, Spain. 

Things I like about it:

It functions as a gathering space for people and provide shade, light, as well as the opportunity to get on top of the "umbrellas", which seems to be fun.

Things I do not like about it:

Those "umbrellas" indeed look like a bunch of cheap plastic giant mushrooms. I do not like the colors, because they make me feel anxious thinking about being at the site. If the architects' intention was to build a city forest for the people to gather, I think they failed to connect the place to nature.

In my opinion, a gathering place that people would enjoy always needs to connect with the nature. Those giant mushrooms block the natural scene and are not enjoyable. 

If I were the designer, here are a few things I would like to do:

1. Add trees, grass, flowers to the site. Maybe plants could grow onto those umbrellas, or even fruits. Maybe some of the umbrellas could be made into green houses for special plants.

2. I want to keep some of the umbrellas (reduce the number) and the idea that people can get onto the top of some of them. Maybe some of the top of the umbrellas could function as solar panels to generate energy for the site or even for the surroundings. 

3. Right now, under those umbrellas all seems to be the same color. I'm wondering if that could change to help with the design and the functionality of the landscape.

4. From the google map, this place seems like between a lot of buildings. It would be a perfect "forest garden" for people during most of the time and a nice market place when it needed to be. I like gathering places, they were my favorite as a kid. I want to even add more different functions and fun to the space by maybe making one of the "umbrellas" a fountain with water coming down from the top (kids will love it). Maybe one of the other "umbrella" could be a newspaper stand for the parents to read newspapers.

In a word, I like this unique design and I think it could be pushed to connect more with the nature, work as an energy generator and more fun functions could be add to it!

source:

http://www.archdaily.com/76944/caac-paredes-pino/