Pure beauty

Trans­for­ma­tion

The Parque Quin­tana Roo in Chetumal, the capital of the Mexican state of the same name, is the wonderful result of the trans­for­ma­tion of a land­fill site into an exten­sive ecolo­gical urban park.

The park offers a wide range of leisure faci­li­ties, inclu­ding a skate park, a spacious parkour garden, outdoor fitness areas as well as multi-sports and child­ren’s play areas – housed in three indi­vi­du­ally desi­gned open-air halls.

The project was prompted by the need for a new venue for the annual live­stock and agri­cul­tural fair. Over the years, this fair has deve­loped into a major annual folk festival that includes concerts, fair­ground rides and craft markets.

The plan­ning comes from AIDIA Studio.

Orga­niza­tion

The trape­zo­idal plot measures 200 by 400 meters and is accessed via a ring-shaped road with parking spaces. An 800-meter-long walking and cycling path was also created along this ring.

The faci­li­ties include three open-air halls, inclu­ding an arena for up to 1,000 spec­ta­tors, which can be used for both sporting events and concerts, covered basket­ball courts, outdoor fitness areas. Retail areas and also a skate park, a child­ren’s play­ground and a “citi­zens’ square” at the entrance to the site.

This civic square is surrounded by eleven Ceiba trees, which are considered sacred trees in Mexico. Each tree symbo­lizes one of the eleven coun­ties of Quin­tana Roo. From here, water­courses run through the area, guiding visi­tors to the various faci­li­ties and crea­ting a flowing, non-hier­ar­chical spatial expe­ri­ence that ulti­m­ately ends at the arena, the park’s largest struc­ture.

Circles

The paths between the circular struc­tures run along tangen­tial arches, which break up the other­wise rigid site boun­da­ries and at the same time inte­grate the variety of buil­ding types into the overall concept.

This concept enabled the plan­ning team to consis­t­ently develop the theme of “biophilic design” – both from a bird’s eye view in the form of the over­ar­ching master plan and from the user’s perspec­tive, through the direct expe­ri­ence of nature within the park. Para­me­tric design tools were also used, which enabled an aesthe­ti­cally sophisti­cated and effi­cient form-finding process.

The result was a variety of diffe­rent buil­ding types, in which hyper­bolic para­bo­loids, for example, were adapted to the respec­tive use. All buil­dings have a circular floor plan in common, but each has its own unique design solu­tion.

Beauty

The low buil­ding density of the park serves to maxi­mize the preser­va­tion of natural green spaces – an essen­tial aspect given the hot and humid climate in the region. All the mate­rials used for the squares and buil­dings are in light beige tones. Toge­ther with the light metal struc­tures of the buil­dings, the slender, olive-green supports and the curved wooden elements, they blend in perfectly with the lime­s­tone and wood­land surroun­dings, while the tiled roofs provide reliable protec­tion against the possi­bi­lity of heavy rain­fall.

The façades of the radial buil­dings use a brick pattern that enli­vens the surface struc­ture on the one hand and ensures air circu­la­tion and natural venti­la­tion through openings on the other. All of the buil­dings are planned on a modular basis to ensure cost-effec­tive cons­truc­tion and to make the cons­truc­tion process effi­cient.

Pure beauty.