Santiago Calatrava - City of Arts & Sciences

Where the Turia river once flowed, the Turia Gardens now comprise a 170,000-square-meter expanse , with sports facilities, bike paths, exercise stations, & lush gardens superimposed upon the dry river bed. Its rambling beauty is revealed on a stroll eastward, along distinctive sections that wrap around the heart of old Valencia’s serpentine streets and plazas. An area visually rich with Baroque, Romanesque, Gothic and Mudejar architecture. Architect Santiago Calatrava’s City of Arts & Sciences will be the stunning finale to our discovery of ‘the Turia.’

We continue along now, taking up where my feature on the Turia Gardens – Green Zone ended at Santiago Calatrava’s Exposition Bridge. The Turia walkway goes on, after wrapping around the lovely old quarter of Valencia, past Bofill’s Modernist landscape design adjacent to the music palace.

Turia Landscape .. Valencia's City of Arts & Sciences designed by Santiago Calatrava (ALICE JOYCE photo)

Soon we come upon a densely planted landscape, fragrant with swathes of herbs and bosks of trees which will braid together as they reach maturity in the undulating grounds of a vast complex – the City of Arts & Sciences, designed by architect/engineer Santiago Calatrava.

Calatrava-designed footbridge (Alice Joyce photo)

A small footbridge bears the mark of a Calatrava design, Valenica’s native son.

At last the ‘City’s’ true entryway comes into view:  Calatrava designed L’Umbracle to conceal. Its form stands atop a parking garage. Calatrava also created sculptural forms sheated in mosaics to house the elevators and mask air conditioning units. (In the photo, the form appears in the distance.)

L'Umbracle - City of Arts & Sciences (Alice Joyce photo)

A word derived from Latin, l’umbracle is a sort of shade house. In this case, one that captures the imagination. An innovative, open-air public space, the 18-meter-high structure possesses an intrinsic clarity of light for the trove of plants that grow within. There are terraces for relaxation and receptions: Allees of palms, ornamental vines, and aromatic species such as shrubs native to the region commingle with bitter orange trees, rockrose, plumbago, and buddleja.

Palace of the Arts, Valencia (ALICE JOYCE photo)

The spectacle of the City of Arts and Sciences looms like a dream: Calatrava’s gleaming white, organic architectural forms in glass, steel and concrete emphatically proclaiming Valencia’s place in the new millennium. Situated amid a 7,000 square-meter green space and sculpture park, completed in 2007, the ‘City’ arises in a formerly depressed industrial area a few kilometers from the sea.

Above: The Palace of the Arts offers a head-turning concept, with pencil cypresses breaking the surface of the pale blue water encircling the building.

L’Hemisferic Planetarium  (Alice Joyce photo)

Calatrava’s stunning design of the City presents a modern-day mecca of art and technology: In the Umbracle and L’Hemisferic; the emblematic Palau de les Arts – Palace of the Arts; and the Museu de les Ciencies Principe Felipe – Prince Felipe Science Museum. A building designed by Felix Candela, L’Oceanografic, a marine park, completes the complex.

April 6th, 2010 | Tags: , , , | Category: Spain | 12 comments - (Comments are closed)

Valencia, Spain .. Romantic Gardens

Valencia’s 19th century Gardens – Jardin de Monforte  & Viveros

Jardin de Monforte Promenade (ALICE JOYCE photo)

The old center of Valencia offers charming diversions for garden lovers: In contrast to the contemporary aspects of the Turia gardens, demonstrating the precision of Bofill’s Modernism, or Calatrava’s innovative buildings for the ‘City of Arts & Sciences,’ which manifest the breadth of the engineer/architect’s expertise, visitors to Valencia bask in historic parks and flower-filled promenades.

On a more intimate scale than Valencia’s Viveros, Monforte Gardens presents an achingly romantic, mid-19th century design of clipped orange trees and manicured parterres. In this atmospheric setting, venerable, age-old trees provide shade from the intense sunshine, giving way to grottoes of moss and lichen encrusted rock. In a satisfying convergence of fountains and filigreed ironwork, stroll amid an allee of classical sculptures and feel refreshed, pausing at the central pond shaped like a water-lily.

Monforte Public Gardens, Valencia (ALICE JOYCE photo)

Monforte Gardens, Valencia (ALICE JOYCE photo)

Viveros Royal Garden, Valencia (ALICE JOYCE photo)

Via the Puente de Real bridge, one enters Viveros by stepping out from the designated old quarter, while crossing to the right bank of the old river bed. Valencia’s largest garden landscape, it’s the site of the former Royal Gardens; the palace long since destroyed. With rose-draped pergolas, aviary, and Paleontology Museum on the grounds, Viveros is a perfect spot to take a cafe break and engage in people-watching.

A bit further along, the 19th century Paseo de la Alameda is a leafy, Moorish-inspired walk running adjacent to the old river bed. Delight in the ancient stone stairways, and asymmetrical layout of flower-filled beds and borders.

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April 2nd, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Historic Gardens, Spain | 7 comments - (Comments are closed)

Turia Gardens .. Valencia's Green Zone

Turia Wall - Oleander in Bloom (ALICE JOYCE photo)

Valencia, Spain: The Turia Gardens project traces to 1957, when flood waters devastated the city’s historic district. To avoid another such deluge, the government diverted the Turia River, relocating the watercourse. Rather than turn the old river bed into a highway, as some suggested, the vast area became a public green zone, with renowned architect Ricardo Bofill assuming a primary role in the overall planning. Bofill envisioned a green sward meandering around and through the city of Valencia on a path toward the sea.

Richardo Bofill Landscape Design, Turia Gardens (Alice Joyce photo)

Valencia’s bridges and old walls add atmosphere and character to each stretch of the Turia gardens. Walls embrace the path as Flower Bridge comes into view, a popular pedestrian walkway replanted annually with masses of colorful seasonal blooms.

Bofill’s Modernist aesthetic characterizes the Turia area linking the 16th century Bridge of the Sea - where a spacious circular pool evokes the river – to the Bridge of the Guardian Angel.

Bofill laid out this parcel in a symmetrical, rectilinear arrangement, softening all the straight lines with a lush green oasis incorporating groves of orange trees. A progression of fountains, set into the ground and enlivened by red tinted walls, produces a refreshing play of water as you move on. The fountains serve as a gateway, announcing the Palace of Music, where concrete colonnades articulate the palace’s formal courtyards. Olive trees, emerald lawns, and elaborately patterned carpet bedding emerge, along with a vast reflecting pool that springs to life with water jets synchronized to music coming from the concert hall.

Bofill Design Turia Gardens Colonnade (Alice Joyce Photo)

The mirror image of Bofill’s design is restated in the path beyond, its soothing geometry leading to a 21st century marvel – the City of Arts and Sciences – soon to follow on  Alice’s Garden Travel Buzz.

Bridge of the Sea, Turia Gardens (ALICE JOYCE photo)

The scope of the Turia is increasing, with the addition of the 35-hectare Cabecera Park at the western boundary. This parkland features a reconfigured terrain, giving rise to naturalistic hills and a lake, winding paths and a series of overlooks.

Turia Gardens (Turismo Valencia photo)

Bridge of the Sea, Valencia (ALICE JOYCE photo)

The contrast between old and new is particularly striking as one strolls the varied enclaves of the Turia Gardens, perhaps most apparent in the distinctive bridges.

Exposition Bridge - designed by Valencia’s own, now world-famous architect Santiago Calatrava is an iconic symbol of the city in the 21st century. The sight of the bridge signals the amazing architecture of the City of Arts & Sciences, emerging as the Turia lures you forward.

Exposition Bridge designed by Santiago Calatrava

Photo: Turismo Valencia

March 30th, 2010 | Tags: , , | Category: Landscape Architecture, Spain | 3 comments - (Comments are closed)
 
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