EDDEA to design a new sustainable residential district promoted by Cívitas in Badajoz
EDDEA will design a new residential district promoted by Cívitas in Badajoz, a project on the Valverde road that will comprise 500,000 square metres of built floor area and more than 4,000 homes. The neighbourhood will be developed according to sustainability criteria, both in its own conception and in future phases, with energy-efficient buildings constructed using passive design techniques.
The Seville architecture and urban planning firm won the commission for this Cívitas initiative with a proposal under the motto ‘Azul y Verde’ (Blue and Green), which recognises the existing green networks (tree cover) and blue networks (watercourses). Particular emphasis is placed on the corridor of the Calamón stream along the western edge and on the hill that overlooks the site to the north.
EDDEA co-founder José María de Cárdenas says that the project “is an opportunity to make Badajoz a city of the future”, explaining that “we have chosen to increase the minimum commercial provision to create a neighbourhood full of life, inclusive and equipped with a wide range of services fully integrated into the system of public spaces and the street network”.
The design thus responds to the most advanced urban agendas, to the fight against the effects of climate change and to the latest post-COVID urban trends, “relying,” he adds, “on two clear strategies to achieve these goals: the new neighbourhood is integrated into the existing metropolitan system of open spaces, and it preserves the qualities of the current green areas, weaving them into the landscape to strengthen the ecological value of the area”.
Urban forest and parks
As a distinguishing feature, the district will include an urban forest and two large parks that will link the different residential blocks and act as great green lungs, reinforced by a mobility scheme that gives priority to pedestrians and cycle lanes. It will also have the full range of educational, healthcare and sports services and facilities, as well as a community centre and a business centre.
Another singular feature of EDDEA’s proposal is that it offers three residential products for up to three different lifestyles: Urban Life, with more urban, compact blocks; Alta Vista, with complexes of single-family homes around shared areas, oriented towards the banks of the Calamón; and Town Houses, which combines different types of semi-detached, terraced and detached buildings.
De Cárdenas highlights the importance “of working hand in hand with Cívitas on this project, one of the company’s largest in the Extremaduran city” and “of being able to bring all our urban planning know-how to bear through a tool of our own, ‘Cityplain’, which, by interweaving geometry and data, helps us design more vibrant residential districts with better functional, environmental and socio-economic performance”.
Founded in 2016, Cívitas began its journey in Badajoz, where it currently holds two million square metres of land in the main growth areas to develop more than 8,000 new homes over the coming years. The company is in full expansion and is diversifying its portfolio into other Spanish cities, such as Madrid, Málaga, Granada and Barcelona, among others.