Transport interchange, Mairena del Aljarafe, Seville
Metro, buses, hotel and offices around a large metropolitan square
We approached the ensemble formed by the transport interchange, the hotel and office towers and the shopping centre, all linked to the Seville Metro Line 1 station, as a rethinking of the public space system of Mairena del Aljarafe and of mobility across the district.
The complex brings together the interchange, two hotel and office towers and a shopping centre, all tied to the terminus of Seville Metro Line 1. The proposal weaves the infrastructure into the everyday life of the people of the Aljarafe and turns it into a link between the capital and the towns on its periphery.
The strategic framework
When we took on this competition in 2005, public facility projects tended to focus on producing self-referential objects. For this commercial complex with a transport interchange, we chose to shift the centre of tension towards the in-between space caught among the buildings: towards the public realm.
We were interested in creating a meeting point and a place of leisure for citizens through an artificial landscape that would make it a new centre of gravity for Mairena del Aljarafe.
Open areas and connected buildings
We therefore proposed breaking up the programme and moving the interchange to the north of the site at semi-basement level, where it connects with the metro station. This leaves the ground floor free of the interchange, avoids conflicts between its users and those of the commercial services, and improves the functioning of the system as a whole.
Taxis and buses drop down to the first basement level, which enjoys natural ventilation and daylight.
The square as a binding element
The proposal is founded on the creation of public space, revisiting the idea of the square and its meaning in the urban fabric of new towns. The roof of the interchange thus becomes the base for an exclusively pedestrian park that will connect and bind together the different episodes unfolding around the site: the new shopping centre, the future new town hall, the new commercial facilities on the Variante de Mairena and the new main network of open spaces.
The new buildings will frame and give character to this space while unfolding across it. This is the idea of the ‘commercial plaza’ as both a complement and an alternative to the American ‘mall’.
A new landscape led by the towers
Their position gives the towers greater prominence, making them the most iconic elements of the scheme and reshaping the skyline of the new town of Mairena del Aljarafe. Allowed to meet the ground more clearly, they gain in slenderness and presence.
The two hotel towers and the office buildings are linked through a single two-storey building. This part of the complex mediates between the towers and the topography of the park laid out on the roof of the interchange. A polygonal line defines its perimeter to emphasise verticality and, aided by deep, equally vertical shadows, creates a shifting play of reflections across the precast GRC façade.
