Porzuna Central Park, Mairena del Aljarafe, Seville
A park organised as islands that closes its own ecological cycles
How do you build a large metropolitan park that works as a fertile frontier between city and countryside?
The proposal generates the park from what already exists in the valley, as a transitional ecosystem between the urban and the rural. A mesh of paths that extends the street pattern of its edges, four programmable islands, and water, energy and waste cycles closed within the site itself organise the park as ecological and social infrastructure.
The Porzuna valley is a strip of more than 21 hectares between the consolidated edge of Mairena del Aljarafe and the countryside, a place of transition between dry-farmed land and a dehesa made fertile by water. In 2007 the Town Council launched an open ideas competition to turn it into the municipality's central park. EDDEA won it under the motto “Cultivate your world!” and went on to take on the design, the public works projects (proyectos de urbanización) and the site supervision.
Starting from what was already in the valley, the proposal cultivates an ecosystem between the city and a rural-urban landscape, programmable and open to change through use. Today it is built and linked to the metro, the shopping areas and the library, and in 2025 the Town Council launched its second phase.
A mesh of paths scaled to the neighbouring blocks
The first tool is a network of paths fitted to the topography that extends the street pattern of the edges, anticipates future routes and reuses disused land. The result is a mesh of spaces similar in size to the neighbouring blocks, carrying the urban fabric of the edges into the park. Over this mesh lies a ring of public facilities that leans on the park and acts as a transition to the adjacent residential fabric.
The routes are organised into two networks. The outer one handles the contact with the city, with wider pavements, a cycle lane and tree-lined strips; the inner one is pedestrian, with main paths 8 m wide and secondary paths 4 m wide, and where they cross, open spaces appear for a variety of uses: a kiosk, sports courts, a stage and tiered seating.
Four programmable islands
Where the mesh meets the ring of facilities, four islands emerge: programmable supports that concentrate the park's content. The Isla de las Hespérides, 27,340 m², hosts botanical uses, plant nurseries, a viewpoint and employment activities; the Isla Laguna, 27,629 m², is devoted to observing and researching water processes; the Isla Wifi, 6,338 m², brings together information points and digital social space beneath shade trees; and the Isla Alameda, 14,612 m², provides wildlife crossings and meeting places over a riparian ecosystem.
Water as the common thread
The strategy is organised into three water-related systems – the valley, the island-gardens and the urban system of continuities – and managed in five layers: green, water, energy, waste and scenarios. A macrophyte lagoon filters rainwater, retention areas absorb the stream's floods and greywater is reused in the park buildings, whose roofs capture thermal energy. Green waste is composted within the park itself.
A park built in phases
In 2009 EDDEA drew up the public works projects in two phases and supervised the works of the first, completed in 2019. In 2025 the Town Council set the second in motion, adding some 15 more hectares to the municipality's great green space.
The project in the press
- Mairena moves towards the second phase of the Central Park with 15 new hectares of green space — Andalucía Información
- Final approval for the Mairena del Aljarafe Central Park project — Noticias Aljarafe
