Artificial Paradises

The project starts off to comprehend the garden as paradise, therefore under a large translucent roof, a garden appears, inside, different activities are carried out, each one associated with perfect environmental conditions. This is how we understand the garden of the 21st century, as the articulation between nature, human and technology.

The first intervention of the project is topographical, the garden sinks 1.5m. Inside, the floor forms part of another sensation, the topography sharpening in some points while in others the topography rises while the catenary on the roof descends. We project a row of perimeter supports on which a bidirectional steel cable cover is supported, which saves a 180m span tautened by stay cables that transmit the tensions to the ground. The structure is wrapped with a double foil of ETFE, at the joint of which the interior enclosures hang. On a rainy-day water will run across the roof surface towards its center, the designed drainage system allows the rain to fall inside the building in a curtain shape creating an interior landscape of cubic volumes of water. The building is traversed by a series of filters: a first vegetation veil, with climbing plants, which emerges in the steel ties that support the entire complex. A glass envelope that marks the limit between the exterior and interior, giving way to a network of filters in the form of transparent PVC curtains that allow free movement, suggesting infinite experiences of circulation. These routes go through different atmospheres, such as a wetland which houses a swimming pool or a steep slope which, like a grandstand, allows one to enjoy shows in a natural environment. The last type of filter is formed by an ETFE pneumatic cushion envelope that encloses the most special landscapes: a laurel forest in which to walk and get lost away from the rhythm of the city or an arid environment in which to relax. With the project the greenhouse typology is understood as an architecture that is in tune with contemporary ideas of nature and the environment and a large public space is created, whose structural dimensions are confused with the very scale of the landscape, one made up of an accumulation of atmospheres that contain different types of air. The link between these atmospheres and the proposed programme allows the visitor to carry out daily activities in perfect environmental conditions. An Artificial Paradise where we turn conventional programs into exceptional events.