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The Eco Boulevard with three ‘Air Trees’.

Derelict suburban area of Vallecas (left) and the boulevard (right).

Conceptual rendering showing a vibrant public space with substantial green.

Sketch showing Eco Boulevard today and after 20 years when trees takeover the site.

Fundamental components of an ‘Air-Tree’.

‘Media Tree’ as a multipurpose space for events and activities.

‘Air Trees’ keep the conditions within substantially temperate during extreme conditions like this when it snows turning into

A complex lightweight structural frame supports the three trees.

A detailed section showing the photovoltaic panel on top and multiple possible planar sections along with a breathing skin.

View of the ‘Lucid Tree’ from the ‘Media Tree’ along the axis of the Boulevard.

A public congregation beneath the comfortable refuge of the ‘Media Tree’.

Diagram showing schematic additions of layers on a structural frame.

‘Lucid Tree’ as an urban nursery with a cool and calm public space beneath.

'Climatic Tree’ as a purifier of air and a generator of electric power to sustain the concept.

The Eco Boulevard with three ‘Air Trees’.

Derelict suburban area of Vallecas (left) and the boulevard (right).

Conceptual rendering showing a vibrant public space with substantial green.

Diagram showing schematic additions of layers on a structural frame.

Sketch showing Eco Boulevard today and after 20 years when trees takeover the site.

Fundamental components of an ‘Air-Tree’.

‘Media Tree’ as a multipurpose space for events and activities.

‘Lucid Tree’ as an urban nursery with a cool and calm public space beneath.

'Climatic Tree’ as a purifier of air and a generator of electric power to sustain the concept.

‘Air Trees’ keep the conditions within substantially temperate during extreme conditions like this when it snows turning into

A complex lightweight structural frame supports the three trees.

A detailed section showing the photovoltaic panel on top and multiple possible planar sections along with a breathing skin.

View of the ‘Lucid Tree’ from the ‘Media Tree’ along the axis of the Boulevard.

A public congregation beneath the comfortable refuge of the ‘Media Tree’.

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Combining the idea of an urban nursery with an active and vibrant public space, Spanish firm Ecosistema Urbano design the Eco Boulevard in Vallecas, Madrid, through a well judged use of fundamental technologies in an alternative environment.

The idea is simple: to infuse life in a socially dead suburban zone by design of sustainable structures that involve the citizens to use them in multiple and diverse ways thus engaging the public in the act of design. As technology opens up new realms for architecture, the use of modern and technology-driven means to think and act for ecology are becoming more and more relevant. Extending the concept of ecology to healthy living and urban wellbeing, Spanish firm Ecosistema Urbano design the Ecological Boulevard as a surgical addition to a socially derelict suburban fabric of Vallecas, Madrid, as a cohesive concept to revive the neighbourhoods through landscape design and architecture using modern technological means.

World over, a lot of research is directed towards making the public places in regions having extreme climatic conditions more temperate without using expensive and hazardous artificial climatic control techniques. The Eco Boulevard is designed as a series of public spaces with a total streetscape of 500 M length and 50 M width. The design was commissioned by the Residential Innovation department of the Municipal corporation of Madrid through a competition funded by LIFE program of the EU. The design amalgamates sensitive approach towards social urbanism through basic interventions making this boulevard a pilot experience in ecological upgradition world over. Three pavilions or ‘Air Trees’ – the ‘Lucid Tree’, the ‘Media Tree’ and the ‘Climatic Tree’ are designed as temporary structures to support various activities chosen by the users. The intervention can be seen as an “urban recycling operation” and the inserts are seen as “social dynamisers”. These lightweight and self sufficient structures consume less than what they produce. Made for their specific context, the structures produce energy through photovoltaic panels by harvesting solar energy. The ‘Air Trees’ are connected to power network and sell all additional electricity it produces to the network making them self-sufficient and sustainable. The structures are made of a simple assembly and can be dismantled and relocated once the trees around them grow to take over their function as public shelters.

Beyond the structures, multiple micro-interventions are designed to cohesively redevelop the place by re-directing and organising vehicular movement, infusing social activity through design of small and safe places for interaction and adding urban infrastructure like street furniture etc. The proposal aims to collectively rejuvenate the existing urban condition by designing spaces where the citizens can act in freedom and spontaneity. 

At the time when modern technological solutions are constantly under scrutiny owing to the infusion of the ‘state of the art’ in daily life, Eco Boulevard successfully manages to impart a long-term social and environmental impact through the use of temporary interventions. Combining the idea of the tree, the container in which it might sit, solar power and the flow of air through a given structure Ecosistema Urbano create an environmental nursery going back to technologies that are fundamentally agricultural. The design thus goes beyond the idea of an ecological urban park and focuses on creation of environments that make the citizens active participants of a positive public space.

Photo: courtesy Emilio P. Doiztua and Roland Halbe; Ecosistema Urbano

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