“CULTURE SQUARE”, PLAZA DEL SALVADOR REHABILITATION
Eugenio H. Vegue y Francisco Sepúlveda

Rehabilitation of Plaza del Salvador

OOIIO Architecture as Architects

OOIIO wins the First Prize in the competition to run the rehabilitation of Plaza del Salvador, in Talavera de la Reina, Spain! The contest was organized by the city of Talavera de la Reina into the “10 + 4 URBAN” program, with the aim of the rehabilitation of several city public spaces. OOIIO won two contests, Plaza del Salvador and San Miguel Square, thanks to proposals where ceramic is the protagonist, the most important crati product in Talavera. The process has served to revitalize local crati industry, prevent the closure of small family businesses that have collaborated with us, showing new formats to use ceramics, not only the traditional kitchen objects potiery. This centuries-old tradition, that is today on a difficult to me, now can be used aslo for the rehabilitation of public space. Both OOIIO squares have recently opened in September 2015 with a great success between the neighbors, as they show with modernity and proud Talavera´s DNA, its symbol: ceramics.


El Salvador Square: The Square of Culture is a proposal of urban intervention which has as main objective to revitalize culturally the public space of Talavera de la Reina. We make a multiple and flexible scenic space which surrounds and delimits El Salvador square. A place you can enjoy watching a film in the summer cinema, listening to music in the open air, going to photography exhibitions, dancing in concerts and “verbenas”… This project comes from a rigorous analyze of the public urban space in Talavera, taking into account the traffic flows, sunlight, topography and pre-existing use. Let’s reactivate the public space!


TRAFFIC FLOWS AND GRADIENTS The project takes advantage of the square natural gradient to generate several open air stages and grandstands. The square pavement reaches from pedestrian zone to the road, to achieve a visually larger square and make the passer-by the real user of the public space.


SUNLIGHT AND FUNCTIONALITY The square shaping comes from the sunlight and shadows study, with a functional objective. The children games zone with morning winter sunlight, the benches, grandstands and vegetation protected from summer sunlight.


SIGHTS AND VEGETATION The frame-stage is placed in the most visible point of the square becoming an emblematic element of the Culture Square. The existing vegetation is reinforced by a green slope which surrounds the main stage.


USE AND CULTURAL REACTIVATION Current uses (church, school and commercial) are emphasized, as long as we preserve an specific area for children to play and some terraces and we create a scenic space with double stage for cultural entertainment events. This urban auditorium will make the cultural off ering of Talavera more powerful.


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