Cruz do Montalvão Park by ateliervmdo landscape architecture

The urban park of Cruz do Montalvão results from the requalification of an abandoned area of a former Portuguese Army training camp field and agricultural land, which together cover an area of 21ha. Located in the hot and dry climate of the Portuguese interior, park is located a 15 minutes’ walk from the city centre of Castelo Branco, with the purpose of compensating the lack of nature in the city (no river, no mountain, and not rural anymore).

The park is designed to address simultaneously three connected challenges of the city context. In first place, to respond to the suburban expansion and the lack of lively informal green public spaces, capable of recreate a community feeling and respond to the everyday urban life. Second, to build a future natural microclimatic refuge, which is a central theme in a city with an average temperature of 25ºC in July and August, and increasingly prone to heat waves. Third, to enhance mediterranean biodiversity in the urban landscape, reframing the idea of “green” in the public space.

After the abandonment of former activities, the land was appropriated through spontaneous and temporary occupations. The lack of use and maintenance has allowed a remarkable group of oak and olive trees to develop, which, together with the reuse of some of the military training structures and the existing natural topography and views, have been carefully integrated into the design of the park, enhancing its intrinsic qualities and the continuity of its local identity.

The heart of the park is its intra-urban path large diagonal path, 500m long, that will be shaded by the crowns of plane trees and connects the civic center with the university campus and a commercial area. The integration of this climate friendly mobility, walkable and cyclable intra-urban flow floods the park with urban daily life. The path assembles the main uses and programs, consisting of a social lawn (which does not exist in the whole city), a natural amphitheatre that gives the park an extraordinary amplitude and immerses visitors in the beauty of the surrounding Gardunha mountains, and a “plaza”. The plaza includes a shaded outdoor café, a playground, bowls, ping-pong tables, a building for associative use, and shaded gardens with tables, benches, and free Wi-Fi. A special attention was given to the lightning of this area, inviting people to socially use the park in the cooler night hours, a critical moment of inner mediterranean cities. The park is completed by a 1km gravel path, which is also used for sports and (dog) walking.

The concentration of the more urban uses of the park allowed to leave the remaining areas for the occupation of natural ecosystems in evolution, without compromising social relevance. Framed by walls, topography or paths, the design integrates more than 300 existing trees (Olea europaea var. europaea, Quercus suber, Quercus rotundifolia and Quercus coccifera) and defines independent spaces for thermo-Mediterranean and humid habitats in wild evolution. The integration of these habitats in the urban context constitutes a unique imagetic and biogenetic wealth, in stark contrast to the surrounding urban or forest/industrial landscape. They provide a wild atmosphere that enhances and distils the overall experience of the park, framing the natural amphitheatre. This strategy allows that only 36% of the park’s surface needs to be irrigated. The sustainability of irrigation is ensured by the collection and treatment of inappropriate ferrous groundwater in the southern part of the park, which is used to create a system of dams and wetland habitats.

Despite the very early stage of the vegetation structure, the provision of shade or the development of natural areas, is possible to observe and feel the vibration of the people’s gathering and appropriation of the space. Rolling, jogging, walking, chatting, playing, dating, sports, casual meetings, or night picnics are already a reality of everyday life, constituting a very informal, natural and contemporary new urban centre. The combination of intra-urban circulation, programmatic diversity, nature and (future) climatic comfort, allows to define this urban park as a very specific, flexible and inclusive answer to the present and future context of the city inhabitants.

• Architecture offices involved in the design:
Gonçalo Próspero, Arquitectos

• Other credits:
Landscape Architecture Team: Verónica Mota Almeida, Diamantino Rodrigues Oliveira
Other designers involved in the design of landscape: Maria João Próspero
Architecture: Gonçalo Próspero, Arquitectos
Structural Engineering: A2P Consultores
Energy, Electric & Acoustics Engineering: Natural Works, Mswatt
Hydraulical Engineering: Campo d’Água – Engenharia e Gestão
Irrigation Engineering: Engenharia Líquida – Tecnologias da água
Soils and Meadows: António Martelo
Architecture & Landscape Visualizations: Pedro Almeida and Bernardo Faria
Photography: João Lopes Cardoso, ateliervmdo, Rui Oliveira
Video: ateliervmdo, Rui Oliveira