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EL COSIDO
EL COSIDO
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Other Projects by MARA ASTARLOA
EL COSIDO
Firm
Type
STATUS
Concept
SIZE
5000 sqft - 10,000 sqft
Design for an agroecological park in Madrid
As it flows through the southern part of Madrid, the Manzanares River is increasingly constrainedby layers of infrastructure and industrial expansion. This has led to its privatization and the contamination of its waters and surroundings. El Cosido emerges as an initiative to reclaim the riverbank for public use, restoring the recreational and productive character it once had for the city and its people.
The project is located in a neighborhood enclosed by railway tracks and road junctions, where two main barriers—La China wastewater treatment plant and La Caja Mágica sports complex—further isolate the river from the city. Situated in one of Madrid's vulnerable areas, the site is marked by disconnection and insecurity. The project transforms this neglected space into a dynamic public realm that addresses environmental, social, and urban challenges through an agroecological approach.
It is a proposal committed to the landscape scale with 33,000m² of agroecological park while simultaneously responding to an architectural and urban scale with a 245m-long linear gesture that generates tension between the two points it connects.
At its core, the intervention employs a transversal stitching strategy, reconnecting the city with the river and integrating it into Madrid's linear green corridor. This is achieved through three key interventions:
• Topographical carving that negotiates the steep gradient, creating accessible connections to the riverbank. Thisinvolves an artificial terrain cut that bridges the 12m elevation difference between the city and the river. It includes a funnel-shaped plaza that opens toward the Manzanares at a lower level than the rest of the complex, connecting to a riverside promenade.
• Water channels recycle the neighborhood’s greywater through a series of phytopurification processes. Four channels follow the primary directions of streets leading into the park, recycling the greywater from San Fermín, and making it reusable for cleaning and irrigating agroecological crops.
• A bridge-building: the architecture serves as an infrastructural link and a public space. The architectural piececonnects two strategic points: a vacant city lot with the highest path of the linear park's viewpoint.
The agroecological character of the project is defined by a set of sustainable agricultural techniques and systems that optimize production while preserving natural resources.
To maximize resource efficiency, careful study is conducted on crops and their cycles to obtain the highest yield from previously underutilized fertile soils.
However, water is the most valued resource in the project. Its technological incorporation consists of the implementation of living eco-machines—channels that recycle the neighborhood’s greywater through various phytopurification treatments involving over twenty plant species.
This creates a purifying ecosystem, an intervention where water phytopurification becomes a landscape-generating element. The park assumes a recreational, productive, and educational character.
THE ARCHITECTURE
Just as the project opens towards the river in plan, the section of the building does so. Three project levels are distinguished in height:
• The green pedestrian walkway begins with a constant slope from the city's elevation and crosses to the viewpoint.
• A second level housing an educational space and market, overlooking the river.
• A free ground floor that gradually descends towards the river, stitching both shores together.
Along this stitching axis, the three levels interact differently with the terrain and water, offering visitors a variety of spaces, including:
• The city’s starting point is a plaza surrounded by vegetation and a primary greywater treatment area.
• The semi-buried agroecological classroom that houses the eco-machines inside.
• The detachment of the building from the terrain
• The market that floats above the plaza and channel.
• The vertical connection point between the three project levels.
• The footbridges stitch both sides of the river
• The final arrival and path intersection with the viewpoint trail.
The market’s floor plan is based on a simple commercial street scheme: a service circulation path, a band of service spaces, and a public route. The interior space is designed with 3x3m and 3x6m modular stalls, which can be adjusted depending on the type of event.
The building structure is a mixed system of concrete and steel. A deep foundation system is chosen due to the poor load-bearing capacity of the soil, with containment structures at the ends.
On this foundation, every 9m, two perimeter bands of supports are placed, formed by a concrete trunk and steel branches.These supports sustain a system of steel trusses made from IPE profiles with spans of 9m and 12m, on which the elevated walkway rests.
From this structural system, a lower plane hangs using steel cables, repeating the same truss scheme but with 6m spans and 1.5m cantilevers. This forms the market floor—a 9m-wide glass box set back from the main supporting structure.
In the two horizontal planes, lateral bracing is used to prevent wind-related issues. Finally, a 3x13m self-supporting rigid box integrates vertically across all three project levels, providing overall stability.
The beam joints will be executed using rigid steel connections.
Two types of mixed truncated-conical supports are designed for the project:
• Type 1 is used for a bridge structure in the park area.
• Type 2 is used for a forest structure in the riverside area.
The connections between these supports and the horizontal beams will be articulated.
The choice of this structural system gives the building dynamism while allowing the park to remain permeable beneath it.
Finally, the selection of exposed corten steel and concrete allows the building to integrate with nature and age alongside it.
This integration is further enhanced by its envelopes:
• A glass facade with solar correction on the south elevation.
• A green roof improves the building's energy efficiency. Its continuous slight inclination facilitates drainage and creates an optical effect inside the market, canceling the tunnel effect of such a long building.
El Cosido transforms the Manzanares river from a neglected boundary into a renewed urban landscape where architecture, ecology, and social life converge. It reimagines the river's edge, conceiving it as a central and accessible element of urban life, reconnecting Madrid with its natural heritage. It restores its role as a shared space for the city’s residents.
As it flows through the southern part of Madrid, the Manzanares River is increasingly constrainedby layers of infrastructure and industrial expansion. This has led to its privatization and the contamination of its waters and surroundings. El Cosido emerges as an initiative to reclaim the riverbank for public use, restoring the recreational and productive character it once had for the city and its people.
The project is located in a neighborhood enclosed by railway tracks and road junctions, where two main barriers—La China wastewater treatment plant and La Caja Mágica sports complex—further isolate the river from the city. Situated in one of Madrid's vulnerable areas, the site is marked by disconnection and insecurity. The project transforms this neglected space into a dynamic public realm that addresses environmental, social, and urban challenges through an agroecological approach.
It is a proposal committed to the landscape scale with 33,000m² of agroecological park while simultaneously responding to an architectural and urban scale with a 245m-long linear gesture that generates tension between the two points it connects.
At its core, the intervention employs a transversal stitching strategy, reconnecting the city with the river and integrating it into Madrid's linear green corridor. This is achieved through three key interventions:
• Topographical carving that negotiates the steep gradient, creating accessible connections to the riverbank. Thisinvolves an artificial terrain cut that bridges the 12m elevation difference between the city and the river. It includes a funnel-shaped plaza that opens toward the Manzanares at a lower level than the rest of the complex, connecting to a riverside promenade.
• Water channels recycle the neighborhood’s greywater through a series of phytopurification processes. Four channels follow the primary directions of streets leading into the park, recycling the greywater from San Fermín, and making it reusable for cleaning and irrigating agroecological crops.
• A bridge-building: the architecture serves as an infrastructural link and a public space. The architectural piececonnects two strategic points: a vacant city lot with the highest path of the linear park's viewpoint.
The agroecological character of the project is defined by a set of sustainable agricultural techniques and systems that optimize production while preserving natural resources.
To maximize resource efficiency, careful study is conducted on crops and their cycles to obtain the highest yield from previously underutilized fertile soils.
However, water is the most valued resource in the project. Its technological incorporation consists of the implementation of living eco-machines—channels that recycle the neighborhood’s greywater through various phytopurification treatments involving over twenty plant species.
This creates a purifying ecosystem, an intervention where water phytopurification becomes a landscape-generating element. The park assumes a recreational, productive, and educational character.
THE ARCHITECTURE
Just as the project opens towards the river in plan, the section of the building does so. Three project levels are distinguished in height:
• The green pedestrian walkway begins with a constant slope from the city's elevation and crosses to the viewpoint.
• A second level housing an educational space and market, overlooking the river.
• A free ground floor that gradually descends towards the river, stitching both shores together.
Along this stitching axis, the three levels interact differently with the terrain and water, offering visitors a variety of spaces, including:
• The city’s starting point is a plaza surrounded by vegetation and a primary greywater treatment area.
• The semi-buried agroecological classroom that houses the eco-machines inside.
• The detachment of the building from the terrain
• The market that floats above the plaza and channel.
• The vertical connection point between the three project levels.
• The footbridges stitch both sides of the river
• The final arrival and path intersection with the viewpoint trail.
The market’s floor plan is based on a simple commercial street scheme: a service circulation path, a band of service spaces, and a public route. The interior space is designed with 3x3m and 3x6m modular stalls, which can be adjusted depending on the type of event.
The building structure is a mixed system of concrete and steel. A deep foundation system is chosen due to the poor load-bearing capacity of the soil, with containment structures at the ends.
On this foundation, every 9m, two perimeter bands of supports are placed, formed by a concrete trunk and steel branches.These supports sustain a system of steel trusses made from IPE profiles with spans of 9m and 12m, on which the elevated walkway rests.
From this structural system, a lower plane hangs using steel cables, repeating the same truss scheme but with 6m spans and 1.5m cantilevers. This forms the market floor—a 9m-wide glass box set back from the main supporting structure.
In the two horizontal planes, lateral bracing is used to prevent wind-related issues. Finally, a 3x13m self-supporting rigid box integrates vertically across all three project levels, providing overall stability.
The beam joints will be executed using rigid steel connections.
Two types of mixed truncated-conical supports are designed for the project:
• Type 1 is used for a bridge structure in the park area.
• Type 2 is used for a forest structure in the riverside area.
The connections between these supports and the horizontal beams will be articulated.
The choice of this structural system gives the building dynamism while allowing the park to remain permeable beneath it.
Finally, the selection of exposed corten steel and concrete allows the building to integrate with nature and age alongside it.
This integration is further enhanced by its envelopes:
• A glass facade with solar correction on the south elevation.
• A green roof improves the building's energy efficiency. Its continuous slight inclination facilitates drainage and creates an optical effect inside the market, canceling the tunnel effect of such a long building.
El Cosido transforms the Manzanares river from a neglected boundary into a renewed urban landscape where architecture, ecology, and social life converge. It reimagines the river's edge, conceiving it as a central and accessible element of urban life, reconnecting Madrid with its natural heritage. It restores its role as a shared space for the city’s residents.
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