city as a playground | plaza ecopolis

Is it an utopia turning the city into a field of experimentation and play? Is it possible to integrate the different areas of the public space by avoiding fragmentation affecting contemporary cities?

From our point of view the contemporary city should be rethought as a transformation of reality around us rather than a new reality starting from scratch. We understand that this transformation should operate mainly from the public space, the place of the collective expression of social and cultural diversity. Public space should be reconquered  by those who make a freer use of it, those not responding to specific patterns and rules: children. Just through the point of view of a child we will be able to rediscover the city and transform it structurally and not in a merely cosmetic way.

Contemporary society imposes new challenges to architecture, beyond the formal experimentation that monopolizes much of its recent history. Ecopolis Plaza transforms a non-place in the sprawl outskirts of Madrid, surrounded by freeways, heavy truck traffic and adjacent to an industrial site, into a space for social interaction.

The Ecopolis Plaza generates a model of a city as a place where citizens can discover and learn about energy saving and responsible consumption of natural resources, integrating ecology into everyday life without turning it into a unique phenomenon that must be explored in a museum.

This is part of exhibition looking through ecosistema urbano eyes, included in the FORMEL_ X architecture series, curated by Kristien Ring.