Hoy tenemos el placer de comunicaros que Ecosistema Urbano ha recibido el segundo premio del Taipei International Design Award 2013, con el Energy Carousel en la categoría Diseño de Espacio Público.
competitions
November 21, 2013
July 19, 2013
Marielyst is a small town in the south of Denmark well known for being one of the most popular holiday locations on the Baltic Sea. Since the beginning of XX century its 20 km of white sand beaches attracted an increasing number of seasonal tourists, up to host nowadays 6000 summer houses in its area. The spatial configuration of Marielyst appears chaotic and it’s lacking of a recognisable identity; the main element of the urban structure is the principal street, a traffic vein that allows people to reach the heart of the small town, and from which secondary narrow streets start connecting every single wooden house. The subject of Marielyst competition was finding and providing a spatial organization to this place in order to structure an urban articulation among its parts. Moreover, an important feature to be considered in this site’s revitalization was the “beachy” atmosphere of Marielyst, its main character.
As usual, we worked with a multidisciplinary and international team, with the Danish landscape Office Kristine Jensen, after being chosen among 4 other finalists.
Plan
Our proposition started from the identification of the land’s shape, which changed its configuration many times until the present. In the past, the island of Falster -where Marielyst is located- was composed by three smaller islands and was crossed by water; the area had been also flooded and remained swampy for many years, until the late 1800, when it was drained. Inspired by this ancient situation, we conceived the idea of “Delta“, a sinuous and porous path that connects the dynamic activities of urban space with the relaxed atmosphere of a beach context.
Summer time
The landscape project focuses on the valorization of the great quality of the natural elements that characterize the site -pines, sea, sand dunes, dike, grass- making them stand out very clearly. The concept of “Delta” appears with the intention of spreading many accesses to these natural landmarks, connecting them through physical and conceptual paths. The Delta structure allows to pull the beach ambience in the urban space, both melted in a fluid unity; the achievement of this atmosphere is possible by choosing very soft and discreet materials to create paths and furniture elements, by substituting the current asphalt with tracks, marks and signs that simplify integration between the two ‘souls’ of the place.
Witer time
We elaborated one of the main aspects of Marielyst STRAND proposition, the activity plan. “Let it be fun!” is the motto we’ve chosen to summarize our idea to regenerate this area, being certain that the requalification of an urban space could not disregard the involvement of people in making the place alive.
The activity plan during daytime
Activity plan for the night
We’ve developed a series of entertaining and bizarre urban objects and we have settled them in the Marielyst area in order to provide several activities aimed to reinvigorate the site during summer as well as winter time. We have tried to get inspired by the surrounding environment to elaborate ideas that allow people to appreciate the visible and the invisible natural local elements.
Catalogue
Our proposition for Marielyst urban contest mainly consisted in designing urban objects strictly connected with natural elements that characterize the site, like rich vegetation, long beaches, fresh water and strong wind. The objective of our urban design strategy for Marielyst was to transform this ordinary beach on the Danish coast in a unique and very attractive site that could easily become a reference point for people who want to spend funny holidays in sustainable way.
Catalogue
The catalogue includes elements to enjoy the view of landscape from above (the watching tower, the balloon in the sky); elements integrated in the vegetation that allow to take advantage of its amenity in an unconventional way (the hammocks, the spider net, the hanging chairs, the fireplace); objects that transform the beach in a big playground (the playful tower, the oversized playground); objects that use wind to catch its power and transform it into energy (the windmill lamp) or just exploit its strength to create ephemeral landmarks (the wind fish, the wind parade).
Catalogue
Other elements are mobile and contribute to constantly change the configuration of the place, like the rolling cabins -temporary supports for sport activities or refreshment bars-, or the vehicles on wheels, a kind of elaborated bikes that could be used to move along the city and create temporary stages, movable slides, or on the road benches. Moreover a big attention is given to the socializing areas, as the rooftop terrace of an existing building along the main street, the picnic area or the water cloud, a playful object very useful to refresh atmosphere during sunny days of Baltic summer.
Catalogue
June 27, 2012
Ecosistema Urbano has, together with the Norwegian architecture office 70°N arkitektur, the Danish landscape studio Kristine Jensen, the Swedish lighting firm Ljusarkitektur and Atkins engineers, been prequalified for the planning competition in Kiruna, Sweden.
Kiruna kommune has shortlisted 10 international teams —out of 56 that were applying— for the next phase of the competition.
It’s an unusual, but very interesting challenge the Municipality of Kiruna is facing after more than a century of mining by the LKAB company. The ground is becoming unstable as some of the main tunnels are localised right underneath the city, so the city centre and all other areas affected will have to be relocated. In a time frame of approximately 20 to 25 years, some 400,000 sq. m. of housing and non-housing development will need to be replaced within the forecasting line of LKAB’s next main level, 1,365 metres below ground.
The aim for the competition is to create a sustainable, distinctive and pleasant urban environment, a city centre linking together surrounding housing and industrial areas with the whole city and constituting the natural hub of the new Kiruna. This is an opportunity for creating something completely new, emanating from Kiruna’s unique history, to accommodate future needs and the desire for good living in an Arctic climate.
We are very excited to start working with the other firms in our team in this competition, and we look forward to develop the future Kiruna during autumn 2012.
June 14, 2012
Last year, 2011, when we moved to Hamar and started working for the new Stortorget, we had the opportunity to meet Vandkunsten, the danish office responsible for the design of the new Culture house in Hamar. We then started to know more about their work and different and interesting projects.
From this encounter, we cooperated together for the competition of Albertslund Syd, an intervention for the renovation of 1.000 courtyard houses in Copenhagen. The team also included other companies and professionals as Wissenberg, Transolar, Lise Gamst, Imagine Envelope, etc. The task was to develop the best suggestion for the renovation of the houses and to provide ideas for the urban architectural vision for improving Albertslund Syd.
Last week we found out we have won the competition. We are very excited about this, and we are looking forward to start this new cooperation!
The full report with jury evaluations is available at www.masterplansyd.dk and at the website of the Albertslund Kommune.
April 11, 2011
Ecosistema Urbano’s energy carousel, created for the Carve design contest for the Dordecht space, Governeurs Plein, has been designed to serve as meeting place for different age groups. As a forest of revolving rope swings that hang at different lengths, the hanging rope seats towards the center of the structure accommodate smaller, younger children, while taller, older children may grab onto the shorter ropes on the outside. the kinetic energy that is released by the children’s hanging and turning on the ropes is captured via carousel structure and stored in a battery underneath the play site. 
When the park begins to lose light, the carousel’s battery supplies energy to light up the structure. When the speed of play increases, the lamps will light up brighter. The color of the lights also change according to how much energy has been generated for the battery on any particular day. 
Over the past year, the design for the Carousel was developed with three phases. You may view the planning documents here: continue reading
April 8, 2011
Last year, the Amsterdam design bureau Carve developed a plan for a new public square in Dordrecht, The Netherlands. Carve specializes in the design and engineering of public space for use by children and young people. Their plan for the new square in Dordrecht, named Governeurs Plein, included five open spaces for the addition of unconventional play objects.
In cooperation with the Centre for Visual Arts in Dordrecht, Carve invited 10 design firms to develop inventive, resourceful and multi-age friendly objects to complete their final design for Governeurs Plein. Ecosistema Urbano and the nine other bureaus invited submitted the following Proposals: continue reading
April 6, 2011
As a current semi finalist for the Buckminster Fuller Challenge award, Ecosistema Urbano is proud to share the Buckminster Fuller Institute’s Summary Assessment with our readers. We are always excited to read that others believe in the potential of our work to inspire and engage architects and residents to become active agents of change. You can find Ecosistema Urbanos complete Semi-Finalist profile here
Ecosistema Urbano is an architectural firm located in Madrid, Spain led by Belinda Tato (@belindatato), Jose Luis Vallejo (@jlvmateo), Michael Moradiellos (@terapiasurbanas) and Domenico Di Siena (@urbanohumano). The core of their proposal centers on contributing to an emergent practice of urbanism that responds more fluidly to the nature of contemporary urban problems. “Creative Urban Sustainability” is the theoretical framework that scaffolds their endeavors, which include built prototypes, an online platform for citizens to engage with their cities and Web 2.0 tools for design practitioners to engage with each other. The idea is simple: combine innovation, creativity and action to generate urban solutions.
Three projects they recently launched highlight their approach. The first is the Plaza Ecopolis pilot, a demonstration site focused on water issues and on transforming local cultural norms. It features a macrophyte water treatment system integrated into a complex of buildings (including a kindergarten) built around a plaza. The second is the What If Cities web platform that asks citizens to imagine what their cities could do and be. Anyone can download it as open-source software and modify it for his/her town/city. It is currently being used in France, Germany, Spain and Italy. The third is a blog and TV station they launched as a solution generator and mode of exchange for fellow design practitioners. continue reading
April 4, 2011
We are glad to report you that Ecosistema Urbano’s principals Belinda Tato and José Luis Vallejo visited Hamar last week to present the ONETHOUSANDSQUARE project to the city’s politicians.
Work on the project has not yet begun and another article was published in the local newspaper, supporting it in the name of democracy – “Invitasjon til demokrati” (invitation to democracy) was last week’s title in Hamar Dagblad, a local newspaper.
“I think the Spanish project is exciting, especially because it invites us to participate in a democratic process’ says Brox Haugen (..) Today the square is large, sloping, gray and noisy. We, the local residents, must find out, preferably together, how we can make it more inviting.’”.
Please see bellow for the complete article (in Norwegian). For more information about the project please visit the website ONETHOUSANDSQUARE. continue reading
March 30, 2011
The top 10 fastest trains in the world belong to Asia and Europe. Number 10, the MLU00, which ran at a speed of 248.9 mph in 1987 was engineered before I was born. As an American in 2011, it’s pretty embarrassing that our fastest train is Amtrak’s Acela Express, which travels the not-so-far distance between Boston and Washington, D.C. and only reaches speeds of up to 150 mph. On top of this, If I were to take the fastest trip from Boston to Washingtion DC today, a 6 hour, 32 minute journey (I know because I just did the search), It would set me back $235.00, but a 1 hour, 40 minute, heavy-Co2-emitting flight with JetBlue would cost me $149.00 – which is $95.00 less… continue reading
March 29, 2011
Ecosistema Urbano is participating in the urban development competition From Streetscape to Cityscape: remodelling Thomas B. Thriges Gade in a team together with the two Danish agencies Schmidt Hammer Lassen Architects and Kristine Jensens Tegnestue.
Among 25 teams 7 teams have been selected to make their proposal for the remodelling of the street Thomas B. Thriges Gade in the historical city center of Odense, the third largest city of Denmark.
Since the 1960’s the city center of Odense has been divided into two parts by the 4 lane street of Thomas B. Thriges Gade, which was established as an effort to modernize Odense. On a daily basis 35,000 cars are passing the street. Having served as an thoroughfare for many years, the street is now being remodelled as a step in the sustainable development of the city. When the new bridge Odins Bro will be finished in 2014, the main car traffic will be led around the city center as part of the Planning Strategy for Odense. continue reading