A park for the People, by the People

By: Jimena Martignoni

Train Station Park (Parque de la Estación), located in a central residential area of the City of Buenos Aires, is the result of a participatory planning process carried out by the local community and the City Government. The City of Buenos Aires is divided into 15 districts, called “comunas”, each one of them identified with a number. It was on the border between two of those quarters (Comuna 3 and Comuna 5), that a vacant area with an abandoned warehouse was chosen by the community as a potential new small park and a place for multiple educational public activities. The lot, owned by the national train operating company, was adjacent to the railways of one of the local urban lines and the warehouse had been formerly used for truck loading and unloading operations and storing.

Back in 2000 this group of people, whose homes are located in both districts but equally close to the abandoned lot, got together with the clear purpose of transforming the site. It was not until 2014 that they accomplished their goal of converting the original land use, which transformed the area’s zoning from one for Future Urbanization to one for Park Uses. Following this significant step, a bill was introduced in the City Legislature for further discussion and debate, gaining

A Park fo r the Peop le , b y the Peop le

In Buenos Aires, an abandoned warehouse and land adjacent to an urban rail-line are transformed into a community park and cultural spaces, with the help of local residents.

unanimous approval. The bill was finally enacted into law in 2016 and it was called «Law for Participatory Design of the Train Station Park», providing the legal frame for the park’s construction and for the previous participatory process of diagnostic assessment and preliminary design.

This law not only determined the design guidelines for both the open spaces and for the renovation of the old warehouse but it also established the new park and the smaller one as a single, “environmental, educational, productive, cultural and management urban piece”. Regarding the participatory aspect of the project’s development, this law instituted a Table of Work and Consensus (Mesa de Trabajo y Consenso), guarantying the multiplicity of stakeholders; composed of officials and design professionals of the City Government’s Ministry of Urban Design, members of the Communal Committee and any people enrolled in the Comunas 3 and 5 willing to participate in a proposal for the park, the integrative team firstly diagnosed problems and established needs to be addressed, charted a course of action and listed all possible new activities and use options for the site.

The design proposal for the site seeks to connect the interior space of the lot with the sidewalks and also with the small park which had been already renovated and planted, across the street. In the past, adapting to the existing street elevation changes along the longest side of the lot, a wall closed off the site. Also, a trucks’ entry was located on one of the shortest sides of the lot and, from there, a driving circuit extended adjacently to the warehouse and ended at the opposite street. In the project, the wall was knocked down and the differences in height were either negotiated —with access ramps, stairs and a path that ascends gently from the street level to reach those of the park—, or shaped with green mounds planted with native plants. In turn, the former trucks’ lane for loading/unloading operations was transformed into a semi-roofed pathway which runs along the full extension of the renovated warehouse, creating a pedestrian connection between the opposite sides of the park and a linear platform at the site’s highest level. From this point, wide views open up to the park and to the urban residential surroundings, offering a close visual relationship with the newly planted areas and those for gathering, playing and relaxing.

Among the list of possible uses and requests that came out as a result of meetings and workshops, two new spaces had been requested very clearly by neighbors: an amphitheater and a building that would house cultural and educational events and activities. The amphitheater was built in a quite central area of

the park, taking advantage of the existing natural slopes and the change of elevations. On the other hand, the old warehouse was completely restored and renovated as a cultural building and, mainly, as a meeting place for locals. Inside, two access courtyards offer indoor green spaces: an area fully planted with natives and a small nursery for educational purposes, also requested by the community. The group of neighbors had established the use of autochthones plants as a number-one goal of the project; now, with the first only-native groups of shrubs and herbaceous implemented in the park, whose particularly wild look contrast with the usual image of manicured plant beds, butterflies and birds are a daily presence.

In the warehouse, designated by the City Government as a building with a certain level of historical protection, the transformation work involved various improvements and restoration tasks. Probably, the most remarkable and meaningful change is that of the roof: in order to maximize the amount of natural light in the building, the team decided to remove part of it in favor of a linear skylight that follows the line of the ridge and left two open areas to create the access courtyards. These two “patios” are the main entries to the building and the many cultural spaces it now offers. People can come and go from the park and enjoy the diverse indoor activities.

A large library, including a newspaper and periodicals library, a production room, some governmental offices for the defense of adolescents and kids, a flexible area for future food stands and a large space for the practice of sports and gymnastic are the new spaces now available for the local community. Furnished with colorful inviting shelves and sets of tables and chairs, the adjoining rooms create a fluent walking circuit and allow visitors to go through and experience many different possible activities, always overlooking the park.

Client: City Government of Buenos Aires (Mayor H. Rodriguez Larreta) / Ministry of Transport and Urban Development (Minister F. Moccia). Project Planning and Design: Subsecretary of Projects: SS Álvaro García Resta / Director: Martin Torrado / Project Managers: J. Bedel, M. Clusellas, P. Ledo Koliesnik, F. Marino, F. Planas Penadés, R. Fernández Rojas / Coordination of Participatory Process: Direction of Urban Anthropology, Director: Javier Irigaray Date of completion: 2019 Areas: 13,708 m2 (site) / 8,366 m2 (park) / 5,342 m2 (renovated warehouse) Photography: Javier Agustín Rojas

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