LARA IGLESIAS

Proyect developed in collaboration with Sheila Bombín.

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This is a project with a clear main task to fulfill: to work out an amusement park that can be used during both, winter and summer. But with an additional handicap: Temperatures are below -15º during half of the year. This was the issue that bring us to the final idea, the problem itself put right in front of us the solution. Any construction had to be linked to the exterior so visitors don’t miss the connection with nature that bring them to an island like Tatyshev. Studying the plot we found out that there were some subtle paths across the whole terrain. People tends to walk through nature using the easiest way to do it, it is what is called natural trails. We thought about take advantage of this special feature, taking this natural paths and upgrading them. A crevasse. Break the ground, with a strong intervention that doesn’t create a negative visual impact on the surroundings. Respect for the sightseeing at a place people come to enjoy nature. We couldn’t modify the park beyond the winter amusement playgrounds. A permanent construction over the ground floor would impact too much in a place like this so we decided to bury all the program that wasn’t entirely dedicated to play, either winter or summer sports. When we took this decision isolation problem was solve as well. Underground temperatures are stabler than outside ones, and this becomes a strong feature due to climatic characteristics of the region. But it didn’t solve the winter situation. We had a whole program handed out beside the borders of our crack that created social exterior (and roofless) zones to social purposes. A square to make outside exhibitions, a terrace to extend the bar limits through its glass walls or spaces working out as playgrounds for children. But what happens with this space when temperatures doesn’t allow to be there? Would we miss this pleasant spaces for five or six months? Ice. This is when ice finally came to our minds. The whole crevasse would be covered by an ice gable roof seen from the surface as a huge frost whale coming out from the water. It would turn this courtyard into a useful space by changing the summer wooden furniture for ice benches and frozen tables. Light crossed though the translucent material but the curtain walls of the permanent buildings wouldn’t have huge heat loses. Poetry and utility working combined.

 

There are five accesses into the cleft: Three of them are pedestrians, another from the snow playgrounds and a last one that allows vehicles to make possible the loading and unloading (required for the restaurant or the expositions storage) and the approach of machines required for the ice covering construction every year.

The permanent program are distributed in 4 buildings/areas. First zone, with access from the park lot places the whole customer service pack: reception desk, security desk, public toilets, locker rooms and the administration block. It faces an open space that gets narrow to move on to the next area, the museum-exhibition room (this is the biggest zone because of the storage area required for this kind of function). A new open space follows this “hallway” serving as a common space for this area and the third one, dedicated to the bar-restaurant and the café (serving ice creams during the summer and hot chocolate at winter). Last zone, at the end of the crevasse places the whole equipment area, the staff rooms and storage for the summer furniture during the winter and vice versa.

The rest of the plot distribution is completed by the summer or winter amusement:  a sinuous snow/skate park bowl, skate slopes and snow tracks. This island is a family amusement park so activities are thought not only for adults and old people but also for children and young people having fun by themselves or with their parents of other age relatives. This is why we decided to turn the remaining space into field full of facilities that adapt themselves to the weather outside. If there is snow we can ice-skate, if there is not, just skate is funny the same.

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