2022 Cat A - inVISIBLE WATERS
The city of Terrassa (Spain) faces the threat of violent floodings and long droughts. The terrain where it is located causes most of the water to disappear underground, leaving the impression of a dry river for most of the year. In the past, violent rain events caused deaths and devastation, imposing the construction of tall retention walls. With this project we embraced the possibility of renaturalizing the riverbed, but to do so it was necessary to focus on reducing the volume of waters reaching the city itself. Creating a floodable park at the city gate that includes water management systems (e.g. detention basins, constructed wetlands and water deviations) and ecosystem services (e.g. food forests, phytodepuration, biodiversity), we provide the city with a new multifunctional space where people can observe the dynamics of once invisible waters and take advantage of them, no longer fearing for tragedies and at the same time respecting the natural course of the water. Moreover, this park interconnected with its agricultural context, both visually and physically, and is also inserted into a wider net of natural parks, aiming to become a major checkpoint in it.
