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Boulevard Embankments
The topographic strategy proposed by the embankments raises the public space and transforms the boulevard’s sidewalks into true lookout points: from the new elevation, an open view of the Luján River is achieved above the riverside clubs. In a single move, a secure articulation between public space and leased/concession areas is resolved. The River is visually brought closer, turning the inner boulevard into a riverside promenade. This amplifies the landscape potential of the recovered public space and inscribes, in the collective memory of the citizen, a place of newfound identity.

Riverside Park
Respecting existing conditions, the proposal’s near-pedagogical intention is to formalize and emphasize a riverside landscape all its own. At the points of greatest landscape interest, the architectural and programmatic proposal will be densified.

– The connection between the Boulevard and the public shoreline is resolved through embankments and elevated walkways along the boundaries of the current concession areas. By raising the public space above the conceded areas, the view is freed above the territory, and potential conflicts with the riverside clubs are minimized.

-The northern sector of the Riverside Park, near the Naval Exhibition Center, concentrates the greatest number of programmatic requirements. Direct vehicle access ensures a density of use appropriate to an urban riverside space. Near the Riverside Ferry, the Tourist Information Center functions as a turning point and entrance to the Fair Esplanade. Framed by ancient willows, the esplanade places us facing the riverbank in a parallel line of sight.

– The central sector of the Riverside Park is conceived as a protected area, the Riverside Reserve, which recreates original visions of the recovered river and proposes new forms of public shoreline with land-water relationship gradients more in keeping with the natural bank of the Luján River.

-The Amphitheater-Lookout consolidates the southern boundary of the Riverside Park. Its elevated position formalizes a lookout point over the opening of the Luján River into the Río de la Plata. As a privileged vantage point for the river horizon, this public edge space places us facing the immensity of the territory. Here, the city of San Fernando establishes its identity in relation to its landscape.

Phase 2: Consolidation of Nautical Activity
The renewal of the public concessions is understood as an opportunity for comprehensive landscape design. Several sub-phases, flexible in their implementation, can be considered according to the pace of negotiations. With precise guidelines and flexible strategies, the proposed improvements to the concession areas allow us to imagine a future of mutual benefit for the citizens of San Fernando and its visitors, as well as for the users of the nautical infrastructure.

Clubs’ Esplanade
The material continuity of the paving into the interior of the clubs visually unifies the urban riverside landscape while functionally separating the public space from the conceded areas. The buildings of the clubs’ central social headquarters are respected, while at the same time the proposal seeks to clarify and repurpose the areas adjacent to the public space.

Embankment Bars
Within the area conceded to the clubs, and as an extension of the elevated public space proposed by the Boulevard Embankments, this new dining and entertainment sector proposes a novel meeting point for San Fernando residents, with an open view onto the spectacle of sailboats and the riverbank. Conceived also as an element that would make the intervention economically viable, the operation of these areas will allow the concessionaire to fund the proposed improvements and generate resources for their maintenance.

New Moorings
The largest impact of earthworks seeks to repurpose and increase the sector’s mooring capacity while also consolidating the park’s public space along the towpath. Of the 658 existing moorings in the sector, the proposed improvements would bring the estimated total to 1,000. The earthworks will be carried out in situ, and the consolidated soil mass will allow for the addition of 2,294 m² to the public space of the Riverside Park’s central area.

The proposed urban intervention strategies accept the complexities of the metropolitan area and make it possible to imagine a better balance between urbanization processes and the organization of the territory.

The intervention will enable the city of San Fernando to develop the potential of a landscape with an identity of its own. By recovering a public river that had been kept away from people for years of shoreline privatization, it proposes a place from which to contemplate the riverside horizon, a public space integrated into the territory.

DISTINCTIONS

Third prize in National Competition: San Fernando’s riverside.

TEAM

Diego Arraigada, Juan Manuel Rois (asociado), Juliana Espósito, Pablo Gamba, Nadia Carassai y Nazarena Infante