Landscape Led design

A landscape led design which is both a miracle of engineering and a model for restoring damaged ecosystems and improving access to nature in urban spaces

Thinking back to our visit to Madrid and specifically the urban park Madrid Rio, which runs along the Manzanares River, as an inspiring example of landscape led design, which once upon a time was a noisy and polluted 6 lane motorway prioritising traffic and separating the locals from the waterfront, creating a barrier between the two sides of the city.

This section of the city was recovered and redevelopment for the use and enjoyment of the citizens and to benefit of nature, resulting in a vibrant urban park surrounded by vegetation and filled with wide a range of sports, leisure, education and cultural facilities. The M30 multilane highway was directed underground, freeing up the 10km waterfront area, hailed as “both a miracle of engineering and a model for restoring damaged ecosystems and improving access to nature in urban spaces.”

We definitely enjoyed the large playground areas, which spread through the entire park, some larger play zones, others are smaller and more explorative. Areas with giant timber structures creating climbing frames, walkways and fun workout equipment. The winding single and double slides are an addiction in themsleves, weaving past and under tree canopies, one sliding down while the others are running up the creative level changes alongside the slides.

As councils and leaders across Europe and in the UK are trying to improve access to green parks, walking areas, play zones and education areas in urban areas, whilst also managing the cross county and district borders and numrous challenges which can arise from a project such as this, Madrid's success story is a lesson on how to strike the right balance, collaborate, ensure the correct specialist and professionals are all on board from the very beginning of the project to work together and push through major issues to create great change.

"Soon, mallards, herons and egrets had built nests in the area; migrating wagtails, kingfishers and cormorants stopped off en route to Africa. The river is now also home to foxes and even endangered otters not seen in the Spanish capital since the 1950s.

Besides being a boost for urban biodiversity, Madrid is more prepared to deal with the effects of climate change or future flooding due to the reengineered riverbank which has containers that can collect the excess water produced by 500 year flood events. If a catastrophic event were to occur, we're now in a much more resilient position to handle it."  José María Ortega - the city's general coordinator for urban development."

José María Ortega - the city's general coordinator for urban development.

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