Press Release
Batlle i Roig Arquitectura Receives the Golden A' Design Award for Scenic Path Along Guixeres Landscape Recovery in Urban Planning and Urban Design
The international grand jury of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition recognizes Batlle i Roig Arquitectura for urban planning and urban design
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
COMO, Italy, April 23, 2021 /DesignNewswire/ A' Design Award & Competition has confirmed the Golden A' Design Award in the Urban Planning and Urban Design category for Scenic Path Along Guixeres Landscape Recovery by Batlle i Roig Arquitectura. The recognition forms part of the 2020 - 2021 A' Design Award & Competition and was decided through blind peer review by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members, who evaluated anonymized entries against predetermined criteria.
The Golden A' Design Award Explained
The Gold A' Design Award is granted to designs that demonstrate a high level of innovation and a significant impact on their intended audience. Recognized as a major achievement by the A' Design Awards, these designs are characterized by their visionary approach and the exceptional skill of their creators. Winners of the Gold A' Design Award are noted for their ability to push the envelope in art, science, design, and technology, delivering solutions that not only meet but exceed expectations. These designs serve as benchmarks for excellence, encouraging further innovation and inspiring future generations of designers.
About Scenic Path Along Guixeres Landscape Recovery
Scenic Path Along Guixeres is a pedestrian and cycle path built on former gypsum mines in Igualada, Spain. The path forms part of a green ring planned around the city. The completed section is 800 metres long and covers 5,600 square metres. Three parallel strips shape the route. The central track of granitic sand, three metres wide, ensures continuity. The outer concrete track, 1.2 metres wide, uses luminescent aggregate for evening visibility and forms a lookout with rest areas. The inner plant ditch channels runoff and retains minor landslips.
About Batlle i Roig Arquitectura
Batlleiroig Arquitectura is a Barcelona based architecture firm founded by Enric Batlle and Joan Roig in 1981. We are a multidisciplinary office, specialized in facing challenges in a transversal way, in three specific areas of Architecture: Planning, Building and Landscaping. It has a business structure with more than 100 architects, and is currently positioned as a leading company in the field of architecture, planning and landscaping.
Award Record
This recognition makes Batlle i Roig Arquitectura a winner of 1 A' Design Award.
About the A' City Planning and Urban Design Award
The A' Urban Design Award is an international urban design competition recognizing good urban plans and designs by best urban planners and architects worldwide. The competition is organized within the A' Design Award & Competition and is open to urban planning designers, urban architects, city planners and urban designers from all countries. Entries typically include masterplans, zoning proposals, infrastructure designs, landscape blueprints, public space concepts and urban renewal projects. Awarded urban plan designs are published at https://designers.org/design-category/urban-planning
About A' Design Award & Competition
A' Design Award & Competition is an international, juried design accolade organized annually since 2008. The competition is open to entries from all countries. The A' Design Award has a philanthropic mission to advance society through good design by recognizing and promoting superior products, projects and services that benefit society, and by creating a global awareness and appreciation for good design practices and principles. Entries are peer reviewed and anonymously evaluated by an international grand jury panel of established academics, design professionals and press members against predetermined criteria such as functionality, ergonomics, engineering, presentation, innovation, usability, sustainability and technology, with score normalization applied to remove biases. Awards are conferred at Platinum, Gold, Silver, Bronze and Iron levels. The A' Design Prize granted to eligible laureates includes the award trophy, the certificate of design excellence, the hardcover yearbook, a lifetime license to use the A' Design Award winner logo, exhibition of awarded works, an invitation to the gala night and award ceremony in Italy, inclusion in the World Design Rankings and Designer Rankings, and public relations and publicity services. Registration, the upload of a work and the preliminary score are free of charge, and Professional and Digital Edition laureates are not contractually obliged to pay further fees to claim the A' Design Prize. Further information is available at https://competition.adesignaward.com
Press Resources
- Winner Page: https://designers.org/118334
- A' Design Award Page: https://competition.adesignaward.com/118334
- Media Showcase: https://www.designnewsroom.com/!118334
- Laureate Profile: https://designers.org/d/300406
- Further Information from the Laureate: https://bit.ly/2Zsjum1
Media Contact
Giulia Ferrari, Press Office
Designers.Org
Via Leone Leoni 32, 22100 Como, Italy
press@designers.org
+39 031 4491953
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Fact Sheet
The Work
- Project
- Scenic Path Along Guixeres Landscape Recovery
- Function
- Landscape Recovery
- Category
- Urban Planning and Urban Design
- Discipline
- Spatial Design
- Industry
- Architecture and Social Impact
- Colors
- Dark Slate Gray, Black, Dim Gray and Dark Olive Green
- Images
- 5
The Recognition
- Laureate
- Batlle i Roig Arquitectura
- Country
- Spain
- Recognition
- Golden A' Design Award
- Edition
- 2020 - 2021
- Design ID
- #118334
Credits
- Team
- Enric Batlle, Joan Roig, Ivan Sanchez, Mario Súñer, Livia Valentini, Dolors Feu, Yago Cavaller and Diana Calico
- Image Credits
- Photographer Jordi Surroca, Guixeres (1), 2018.; Photographer Jordi Surroca, Guixeres (2), 2018.; Photographer Jordi Surroca, Guixeres (3), 2018.; Photographer Jordi Surroca, Guixeres (4), 2018.; Photographer Jordi Surroca, Guixeres (5), 2018. Video Credits: Stupendastic Films
Design Details
- Unique Properties
- The project has two main goals: first, connectivity, achieving the continuity of this global project around the whole city (the green ring). Second, landscape and biodiversity recovery, establishing the necessary elements to generate a new dynamic on the site that will progressively improve its environmental conditions through the use of collected water. In this sense, the proposal creates a typical section with three clearly differentiated strips that adapt to the different situations of the layout, addressing the problems of the site as well as developing its potential.
- Inspiration
- The project is framed within Igualada’s Green Ring, creating a set of pedestrian and bicycle paths as a belt around the city. This new green sustainable mobility infrastructure aims at establishing a network of free spaces, apt for environmentally friendly leisure activities, adapting and recovering, to great extent, currently underused or degraded spaces. In this context, the gypsum mines path implies the adaptation of a 1,65km section, of which 800 meters have already been accomplished.
- Research
- The proposal’s innovation lies in the result of this process of analysis and synthesis that concludes with the technification of conventional solutions for path construction, in order to accomplish greater performance regarding accessibility, visibility, durability and re naturalization of the environment, with an optimum cost ratio and maximum efficiency regarding environmental footprint.
- Challenge
- The project was born and built during the crisis, for which we had a very small budget available. We were asked just to solve a new path through that location in order to ensure the continuity of the Igualada Green Ring, but the knowledge acquired about the site and its values forced us to take the whole former gypsum mines as our scope of work. We did not want to design a project of a simple path, oblivious to everything observed and its potentials. Our desire was to recover the entire area, historically abandoned, and integrate it into the green and social infrastructure of the city.
- Realization and Technology
- The central strip, with the main 3-metre-wide granitic-sand track, guarantees the continuity of the Green Ring. The outer strip is a linear lookout overlooking the city. A 1.2-metre-wide track paved with concrete to ensure the accessibility and using luminescent aggregate to improve visibility during the evening. The layout of this linear scenic viewpoint recognises the principal existing landmarks, vegetation and trees by widening and creating rest areas. The inner strip acts as a plant ditch, to channel runoff and generates a safety strip to stop minor landslips.
- Operation and Interaction
- The intervention creates a landmark visible from afar (the viewpoint) that acts as a reclamation for the whole city and encourages the use of space. Also, the path is completed with a number of small living areas strategically placed on the most privileged areas. This section of the path ends in a final observation deck cantilevering over the mountain providing a panoramic view of the Anoia and Montserrat Mountain. The project has had an exceptional reception from the citizens. They flock to stroll and practice sports in their leisure time. This has motivated the municipality to go on with additional segments of the track to continue extending this Green Path around the city.
- Project Duration and Location
- The project, located in Igualada (next to Barcelona, Spain) started in May 2017 and finished in January 2018.
- Specifications
- 5.600 sqm / 800 meters long
- Keywords
- Landscape Recovery, Pedestrian Path, Cyclable Lane, Rest Areas, Viewpoint, Architecture Landscape, Biodiversity
