REFOUNDING THE URBAN HORIZON LINE: PARQUE DE ESPAÑA, MBM ARQUITECTES (1979-1992)

Abstract

Starting from the mediating role of architecture in the daily life of human beings, this article reflects on the mediating action of the Parque de España in Rosario (Argentina), projected by the architects Martorell, Bohigas and Mackay, as a project which reconciles the land with water, the up with down, the public with private. This work, carried out on the central bank of the city, in a historical railway port area, makes it possible to reconnect the lowest coast of the Paraná river with the upper level of its ravines through an attentive intervention in the historical components that comprise the identity of Rosario. Parque de España is constituted as the spearhead of the makeover of the central riverfront of the city. Although this began to brew during the last years of the military dictatorship in Argentina, it takes shape as a new perspective of the role of the urban project as a generator of public space, from a democratic point of view. This project is, thus, an empirical laboratory of the model of Barcelona, from which a new dialogue arises as regards the dwelling in the city, by transforming an imaginary linked to be with one’s back turned on the river into shaping a new architectural ravine and a balcony to the Paraná river and its delta, establishing a new zero level.