Overall view

© ricardo vieira de melo . Published on July 17, 2012.

LANDSCAPE AND MEMORY | REUNION AND FUTURE ” We were given memory so that we can have roses in Winter”

Marina Section

© ricardo vieira de melo . Published on July 17, 2012.

The profound change that the Claridade Beach met in the last forty years has brought a significant change to Figueira da Foz. The city has seen some of their lovers move away while the sea also retreated. The Figueira da Foz beach has become an “urban overplus”, a void difficult to overcome. The strip of sand pressed the city trapping her in his memories. The presented proposal builds future, taking advantage of the vast territory offered by the wind and the sea using it to revive the prestige and enthusiasm of the city through an extensive Atlantic Park ready to receive art, culture, sport and leisure. This great collective equipment, with more than two kilometers, will be able to rebalance the relationship between the city and the sea and will be a permanent invitation to residents and visitors to have “roses all year round.” The intervention area provided for the competition is essentially a natural territory, a border between the city and the sea. Therefore the way to draw it should be freer as well as more conditioned. It’s a boundary place, a meeting place of the urban with the nature, the non material. Therefore it can be a interbreed space, multiple, polyvalent. Therefore it will be a privileged space for activities and sensations – a place for freedom.

Pool Section

© ricardo vieira de melo . Published on July 17, 2012.

ORGANIZATION It is the main intention that the organization of the built answers to the singularities of the place, losing its importance as it moves away from more consolidated urban area, or towards the north. In other words, that built elements can reduce its presence in time and space, as we approached the beach, or Buarcos, where the urban expression is less intense. Confirming this, the south area is where the intervention has more urban programs, which complement the consolidated city. That’s the case of an Atlantic Pool and a multifunctional space, called the Ring of Arts. Serving these two large equipments, the proposal introduces a new profile for the Avenue, doubling the car track and enlarging the sidewalk while building a half-buried parking with capacity for 445 cars. Bars and restaurants will be distributed along the park, interchanging their position on the face of the Avenue or along the new marginal. This variation allows greater pathways differentiation, because these constructions will be near the pedestrian access to the beach. To the north the solution will produce greater outdoor use. Throughout the park, new equipments for children and youths will appear, as well as a Skate Park. Nature will punctuate the north intervention with the presence of the New Theatre Garden and the Sands Garden. The first will appear from the redesigning of the space in front of the “Caras Direitas” square and the second as an interpretation center of the native flora of the Portuguese coast.

Avenue enlargment section

© ricardo vieira de melo . Published on July 17, 2012.

PHASING Due to specificity of the intervention, the proposed phasing can be changed. Each phase may be exchanged with another depending on the availability of funds and the urgency of the work. First phase: rehabilitation and intervention on the Marginal Avenue, with a track duplication in the southern part of it and qualification of the northern one. It includes the construction of semi-buried parking starting from the Galante Rotunda down to the Public Watch. This phase also considers the construction of the Oceanic Pool as an vital element for the sidewalk image and a transition one for the north pier. Its roof will deforms and raises like a bubble, marking the end or beginning of the pedestrian path.

View towards the New Marina

© ricardo vieira de melo . Published on July 17, 2012.

Second phase: rehabilitation of the Buarcos Garden, with a redefinition of the road and pedestrian flows, landscape drawing and replacement of the restaurants. Introduction of the new “Marginal Mar”, a new low traffic street above the sand dunes, stretching from the north down to the south, allowing the stabilization and fixation of the pioneer vegetation.

View from the New Marina

© ricardo vieira de melo . Published on July 17, 2012.

Third phase: introduction of an Atlantic Park, with various equipments including the multipurpose equipment “Ring of Arts” that may receive various activities of leisure, sports and culture.

General Plan

© ricardo vieira de melo . Published on July 17, 2012.

Fourth phase: qualification of the north pier of the port of Figueira da Foz and building of the Oceanic Marina Port, along with the replacement of the Tennis Club and the construction of a large amphitheatre and a commercial building.

New Buarcos Garden

© ricardo vieira de melo . Published on July 17, 2012.

ENERGY, NATURE AND PROXIMITY The project consists in a concept which can be summarized in four main goals: - Creation of a dune system that allows fixing of autochthonous plant species defining a vegetal filter device, creating a transitional space, and protection one between the city and the beach. - Construction of a new pedestrian and car access system to the beach while allowing decompression of the avenue and the creation of wind barriers with fixing vegetation, and further strengthening of the car parking supply, with the construction of a semi-underground park for 445 cars in southern section of the avenue and some more in the new “Marginal Sea.” along the new sand dunes. - Introduction of a set of new buildings with various programs, operating as triggers of demand from visitors. - Use of building and energy techniques to ensure that both production and conservation of energy will prevail. All equipment and beach facilities as well as the walkways will take advantage of solar and wind energy, characterizing this new area of the city as a “energetic HUB”.