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Problem statement: Historically, water had been extracted from some of Cuba’s major aquifers at a higher rate than they were recharged, but in recent years the pace of water extraction appears to have intensifi ed. Surface waters diverted into man-made reservoirs can interfere with the natural recharge of aquifers. High evaporation rates from tropical region reservoirs can have adverse environmental impacts by increasing the concentration of minerals in irrigation water. Surface waters have been contaminated by industrial wastes and by the chemical runoff associated with the use of increasing amounts of chemical pesticides and herbicides. Scant water distribution management, alarming condition of infrastructure together with high contamination of water resources constitute a scenario, where the need of establishing elementary infrastructure for water treatment opens possibilities to reformulate the image of infrastructure as a by-product of settlement and to relate it to its public role and use, as well as to the whole ecological process. The area of Puentes Grandes district in Havana character calls for fully specifi ed design; suffi ciently open to integrate recreational dynamics of natural ecosystems. Goal: The intention is to design beyond the polarized situation where architecture and landscape can be included as systems in an urban design. In the city scale the design solution should aggregate the development of neighbourhood of river Almendares banks and enforce its natural ecosystems. In the more local scale, design intention is to develop a formula capable of fusing previously separated morphologies of industrial production, hydrological infrastructure and public, green, recreation area. Method description: Finding self-referential accommodation in a landscape that has lost its coherence; examining the site in order to discover possible rules for intervention; rediscover the landscape with its critical properties. Use landscape as both structuring element and medium for rethinking urban conditions, to produce everyday urban spaces and architectural solutions. Relevance: Take the fl oor in discussion concerning the issue of how dense urban forms emerge from landscape and how urban ecologies support performance spaces. Search for new basis for emergence of form geared to the technological and ecological realities of the contemporary city. The project in its large scope deals with the conditions of butting edges of Metropolitan Parque de la Habana covering the valley of Almendares river and two districts on its Eastern and Western border. The analysis unfolds that both topographical conditions and infrastructural elements limit the access to the green areas. On the urban level the project intends to create pedestrian connection between Centro Habana and Marianao districts; at the same time it facilitates access of citizens into park area. The old railway embankment will be given a role of a spine of the project. Along the pedestrian green line various interventions will be situated. New circumstances will constitute a programmatic infi ll in variable patchwork of present land development. Recreational programme of the park will be replenished. On one hand, proposed elements will support and propel establishment of amusement infrastructure and on the other hand contribute to improvement of environmental conditions of discussed area. Th scope of the project is considerable large. The aim of the project is to create The whole project is embeded on a response to the basic human need - acess to the water. an amalgam-park or to be exact, to amalgamate Architectural respond to this objective release itself in the fi nal part of the design. the park with the city by establishing The public bath house became a main point of my interest in this project. a pedastrian green path from one district to The sitie chosen is the former graden of the local brewery. another and to facilitate the entrance to the park. The new function will continue the idea of a place, which is open to the public. The ‘amalgam’ in here is constituted by Baths, apart from their basic programme, always posessed an element of the acessible realm . the ‘hybrid-embankment’ - amalgam park a multifunctional line that consists The building is divided into two parts - Northern accomodate the baths and Southern - swimming pool of monofunctional intersertions. facilities; There is a common layout set for both parts. The tripartite layout - the fl oorplan is structured on On the East route starts in Centro Habana, next to three stripes - the outside lanes facilitating connection between both parts, the existing zoo and further to the West it reaches the one in the middle carryies basic functions. marsh park with waterourifi cation facilities, agriculture in the city area The coalescence of recreation and water treatment. The moment when embankment goes across the building is emphasized by the architectural gesture of public bath with swimming pool complex Public bath house with swimming pool complex, entry colonade surrounded by the water - atriums that built a distance between volumes of both parts. followed by main entrance to the MPH and water purifi cation facility and marsh park in Havana. The action of cutting a strip of land the ventage point. The whole route fi nishes in stretched between North and South The soil and stone material obtained in process of demolishion of the fragment of embankment Marianao district, next to sport facilities. All of mentioned new author: Marta Jakuć coasts of Havana Province is taken in is used as a bulding and landscape components in the gabion wall construction. order to extract and describe elements The architectural form referes to the industrial buildings in the neighbourhood. insertions are based on the modeifi cation made that constitute it. on the mebankment. Graduation project, master programme Faculty of architecture Delft University of Technology The organization of land, on one hand, The Netherlands 2008/2009 is understood here as the way the unit Tutors: Filip Geerts, Stefano Milani, Olaf Gipser of land operates within its range, as well as its pivot irrigation and vegetation aerial spread and certain time period. On the other hand, the logic of operations made on territory is investigated in terms of their The tripartite research methodolgy allowed me to follow In the second part of the research one of basic system meeting point or within areas they independent, yet connected streams of research conditioning proper functioning of the city is taken overlap each other. on the subject of La Habana. into account. The issue of water resources management, as well as water distribution is investigated. Survey as part of the research concentrates on describing A model of water distribution infrastructure is made the functional logic of Cuban land in the Havana Province. explaining the interrelations between its natural In order to investigate it, a strip stretching between and man-made components. density index the North and the South was constituted. Several exemplar 235hab/ha 225hab/ha 260hab/ha 315hab/ha profi le of mangroves tidial fl at units of the land were found and represented. For the third part of the research, the area of Parque The representation of these components puts emphasis Metropolitano de la Habana was chosen. on their operational framework and also the way PMH is the area where the agricultural activities it was changed over time. One of the aims are interwoven with post-industrial venues, old quarries of the investigation was also to defi ne areas where diff erent in process of reforestation and scattered residential land uses overlap each other; how urban area spread and recreational areas. Placed between Centro Habana mangroves intertidial zone sandy intermoud into agricultural hinterland and opposite. in the East and suburb district Marianao in the West, reef crest the park encompasses the Almendares’ river valley with the complexity of its ecosystem. An attempt was made to examine the park as an object in the city. The water contamination threat problem revealed in the research on agricultural regions leads to the analysis of the drinking water resourses. The objectives of the park’s existence are to reverse deforestation; create opportunities for urban agriculture; clean up the territory, the river and industrial polluters; explore alternative technologies for sewage treatment; introduce integrated solid waste management practices; restore and create housing; improve recreational facilities and services; improve accessibility to the park; promote The Metropolitan Park of Havana covers to the big extend economic self-suffi ciency and introduce participatory and environmental education processes. the end of watershed of Almedares river - main drinking water source. This fact became a main reason to deal with the analisis of the park area. The site occupied by the PMH project is approximately 700 ha. It is one of four major parks along the river’s basin, conceived by the 1963 Master Plan. As such, it is an intrinsic part of the capital city’s greenbelt system. There is a signifi cant diversity of operations within this area both in the use of soil and buildings and in green spaces and social components. This is demonstrated by the diff erences between the mansions inhabited by the middle and upper classes in the Miramar and Nuevo Vedado areas and the modest houses of the working-class neighbourhoods of Pogolotti nurceries private farms dwelling areas topography conditions inner partitions pollution interconnections and El Cerro. Between these neighbourhoods lie private forests multi-crop farms recreation areas steep slopes creates natural barrier of the park on its hyrological layout and transporation network more than 70 point soures of organic matter bridges and tunnels crossing the river valley reforestation forest farms industrial areas Western border scheme together organise park into and industrial wastes are located within and fastening Cetro Habana and Marianao district the precarious settlements of El Fanguito an accumulation of island-like patches of land and or in close vinicity of the park defi ne border on East and South and La Isla del Polvo.

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