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In tackling this recent project in a picturesque village on SpainŐs Costa Brava, it was decided to integrate the promenade into the landscape by means of arrangements of trees and a combination of hard and soft surfacing. In the process, approaches with an excessively urban character were avoided to achieve a natural effect. |
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The promenade itself is divided into four sections, whereby the first runs next to the road to La Fosca and an existing row of houses. A rounded coping of Banyoles stone was added on to an existing wall of the same material, with the result that the wall now resembles the low guard walls that used to line the roads of the Costa Brava. The road was sealed in mastic, and washed concrete with visible aggregate was used for the promenade itself. |
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The second section uses stone fossil paving in a yellowish hue for the edges of properties and the entrance to the beach, and a softer solution of coarse sand has been employed for the remaining surfaces. These two zones meet along a sinuous line, creating islands for plantations of trees (pine, cypress, olive and tamarind) and lines of wooden benches. The curved wall separating the promenade from the beach is lower than the one in the first section, but is also coped in Banyoles stone. The wall is interrupted at the beginning by curved steps, which lead down to the beach in the same stone as the paving. |
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The third section, which faces the small isthmus of Roca Fosca, consists of the coastal path connecting the beaches of La Fosca and Sant Esteve. This path has been provided a concrete retaining wall faced in stone. The wall, which follows the sinuous form of the topography, decreases in height towards the end until it levels out with the paving. The path was given a gradient of less than 6 percent to enable people with disabilities to pass from one beach to the other and adapt it more smoothly to the uneven relief. The paving consists of old wooden railway sleepers flanking beds of coarse sand. |
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In the northernmost section, a platform was installed which provides access to the beach from a nearby housing estate while organising the commercial zone and leading on over to the coastal path to the Sant Esteve fortification. A geometric platform adapted to the topography ends an existing street and establishes a dialogue with the rocky zone and the natural character of the setting. |
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Finally, the path to the Sant Esteve fortification was improved by building a series of stairways to facilitate access by slightly modifying the longitudinal profile. The steps consist of three stone slabs, and the landings are made up of coarse sand. Emphasis was given to the Sant Esteve Ôpi tortŐ (Beach Pine), a natural monument, to underscore its role as a symbolic feature of the site and to mark the end of the promenade. |
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| Project Info |
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Location:
Palamós (Girona).
Board of Directors:
Jordi López (CCP Engineer),
Nicolás Ruiz (Collaborator Director),
Josep Fuses - Joan Ma Viader,
Architects.
Developer:
Ajuntament de Palamós,
Direcció General de Costes.
Collaborator:
Ramón Sagué, Architect.
Structure Architects:
Blàzquez - Guanter.
Building Company:
Aldeasa S.A.
Project: 1993
Construction: 1994 - 1996
Budget:
973.640 €
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La Fosca 1
