Andrea Tusell i Falcò

Project Location 
Girona, Spain 

Topic 
Landscape Regeneration Ecological, Water 

Program 
Urban planning Master plan, Waterfront 

Llibertat 3 And 5 Girona 

Among three technical strategies, the area of intervention aims to rescue and des-anthropise three problems that cause water erosion and desertification agents: a territory that dries up, a river that overflows and water pollution. Once these three strategies are in operation, the natural ecosystem will regulate themselves. 

The project is based on the hydrological restoration of the city of Girona in Catalonia, working on the renaturation of the environment and the highly anthropized spaces up to the point of confluence of the two river basins, where the environment and variability are part of it. A proposal for urban transformation in a city with a high historical and architectural heritage, with the aim of maintaining the identity of the river front, making urban life coexist with water management and turning it into a cultural agent by making the processes of water visible. Trying to find the best way of the meeting of man with the water. 

My work is based on the hydrogeological restoration of the city of Girona in Catalonia. From the origin to the current situation, understanding its evolution, the project is developed with a multidimensional analysis -temporal and territorial- specifying the areas of action within the territory that from different scales is reduced to the scale of the architectural piece. The study area aims, by means of three technical strategies, to recover and de-anthropise three problems caused by water erosion and desertification agents: a territory that is drying up, a river that is overflowing and water pollution. Once the interventions to solve these problems have been implemented, the environment and the ecosystem will regulate itself in a natural way. The three strategies are: 1.TERRITORIAL Strategy: Water retention and infiltration Reforestation Large extensions of water lamination, in the fields of Santa Eugenia, outside the urban area and before the entrance to the city. Detection of underground car parks in urban area/functioning as interconnected reservoirs. Deconstruction of existing dams / replacement by another sensor system. 2.URBAN STRATEGY: Action in the riverbed for the recovery of the Onyar and renaturation. Permeability Recontouring/sustainable drainage system Vegetation 3.SYNERGY buildings-river Self-sufficient model building Water filter The aim of the project, both the comprehensive risk analysis and the proposed strategies for the recovery of the Onyar River, is to be an example that can be used to create guidelines for action that can be extrapolated to other areas with the same risk. The ecological restoration of riverbanks is an important issue in contemporary urban regeneration in cities around the world. I believe that it is necessary to give an architectural response for the protection and recovery of the landscape, for this reason I consider it a very good opportunity to participate in the YTAA.