The proposal seeks to vanish the limits that the Guaire river and the Francisco Fajardo Highway established in Caracas to favor greater North-South integration of the city, generating a public space that as a green corridor can extend all along the river banks claiming pedestrian traffic, providing opportunities for economic, recreational and cultural development of Las Mercedes, Chuao and Monte Bello, through a series of specific strategies in order to revitalize and restore the urban and natural qualities of the sector.

The first strategy addresses the recovery for the pedestrian walk through the rearrangement of parking at the edges of the street and the generation of three underground parking lots that serve both the public space and the commercial area in general. The second strategy looks to refurbishing the spaces by building a new landscape through a pavement job in which a green strip reaches different levels incorporating the existing trees and allowing continuous walkways and bicycle lanes above the river level and/or the highway. The third strategy involves creating four architectural and landscape devices that respond to issues of connectivity, accessibility, economic and environmental sustainability, among others. These devices includes bridges, tower and dunes, that conform a small equipment that contains programs such as bicycle parking, restrooms and security posts, among others, as well as elements of urban signage and visual reference the sector. The vertical elements shelter billboards that complement those existing landscape lighting along the highway and are a resource for economic sustainability of the park. These vertical towers further contribute to the process of water treatment and Guaire river of sewage and storm origin, by implementing techniques and biotechnological methods comprising the use of vertical constructed wetlands and biological treatment with algae for removal of contaminants chemical and bacteriological industrial, commercial and household origin.

Río de Janeiro Las Mercedes Bulevard Competition 

Verde Fluído
Design Team | AM Architecture Studio (Aliz Mena Architect +  Bernardo Dorbessan Civil Engineer) + BOCA (Iliana German, Manuel Barrios) + Micucci Arquitectos Asociados (Franco Micucci, Cruz Criollo, Andrea Hernández Bueno, Ana María Brito, José Angel Pérez)
Collaborators | Karen Mata + César Mendoza + Israel Leal

Caracas | April 2014