Excerpt: Plaza Principal Cosoleacaque Veracruz by Reyes Ríos + Larrain, Colectivo MX and Gabriel Konzevik reconfigures the city’s main public space to improve the quality of social life through flexibility of use, climate-responsive design, and a renewed sense of local identity. The intervention combines the optimization of existing elements with new spaces that encourage everyday activities, social gatherings, and community belonging.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] The renewal of the main plaza of Cosoleacaque city is part of a nation-wide program of public space interventions under the SEDATU coordination and financed by the federal government of Mexico. The design principles applied to this specific plaza are aligned to the idea of the improvement of the quality of social life based on a deep review of how and why people have used the existing physical facilities.
Due the climate conditions (subtropical-humid), ancient cultural roots (dating before the pre-Hispanic epoch) as much as the tight budget assigned to the project, the whole public space intervention (including sidewalks around) was deeply reconfigured in response to basic design strategies such as flexibility of use, the recycling / optimization of existing elements in good conditions, introduction of materials with heavy duty performance also available locally.
A key strategy is to provide as much shade as possible -from both, architectural and natural vegetation-, as well as the introduction of a new image-character, oriented to recreate elements from local culture (color-cross stripes, circular rings for instance), in order to reinforce a sense of belonging for the people from this specific place.
As part of the strategies mentioned, the concrete arches that were built few decades ago as a virtual enclosure to the plaza with basically aesthetical purposes, were replaced by a single line of 54meter long vaulted corridor that will provide roof for temporary-traditional social gatherings and celebrations.
At the same time, the existing vaulted open stage (dating from mid-twenty century) were tuned with the removal of unnecessary elements and the addition of a clay-block screen that serves as the background for the existing platform that was also reshaped.
Almost half of the existing trees (although are not endemic species) were preserved due its age, so new young trees were planted to extend shade. Pigmented and natural concrete, combined with artisan-traditional and semi-industrialized bricks are part of the chosen materials.
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