A wooden platform raised 40 cm from the ground in the shape of a star, a pergola with tensioned masts and three different pools make up a proposal that seeks to enrich the place through geometry, making visible unexpected relationships with the city, the sea, the port, the beach, and sky, at the same time that it stands as a support for new recreational activities, turning a semi-abandoned site full of potential into a new place full of possible uses.
It aims to establish a shared-use platform that, beyond the seasonal swimming pools, represents a meeting point on the beach and a place that is keyed in the collective memory: endearing, friendly. Geometry and matter are the ingredients that build this new place.
Asteroidea is built from a wooden platform in the shape of a star or five-pointed asterisk that seeks to tie itself to the environment to be subject through it. The platform raised 40 cm from the ground, offers a bench on all edges. The pools are attached to these five arms and offer different experiences depending on their relationship with the environment, which is specific to each of them. Since there was nothing on the proposed site previously, the place must be built from the beginning, from what exists around it: from a dialogue with the near and the far.
Each of the arms of the platform is launched for a different relationship, as if they were docks that go into the sea, pointing out specific directions. But on their long side, they also offer seating, creating calm and dynamic views. The platform combines the movement of people and immediate dialogue with things and quiet time for contemplation, available every day of the year.
Two arms connect with the city and the bike lane. One to the south collects the flow that comes from the port and the toilets and changing rooms on the beach and gently collects them through a ramp with a very small, accessible slope, which takes you up to the platform without a single strange gesture and comes out to meet you. Of visitors. The other arm, with the same gesture, picks up the flows coming from the north. These two arms, welcome, raise you just enough for the perception to change.
A little further on, going over the arms, the pergola begins to protect from the solo or the rain, the masts appear, and the threshold is crossed in two parts: slow traffic that welcomes you from the city, lifts you, covers you, and It protects you and then projects you into the pools. It is time to separate from the city and approach the sea is important.
The other three arms are born from the protected center and project towards the landscape in three different directions. The arm approaches the children’s play area and the zip line to the north and is attached to a paddling pool and a long bench that looks perpendicular to the sea.
The second arm is projected directly towards the sea looking for the minimum distance, and communicates and approaches the running lane. At its tip, people watch the athletes run. A large pool is attached to this arm and visually approximates the children’s pool: although separate paths have been followed, both are close together.
On its long side, this arm offers oblique views of the beach and the harbor. The third arm points to the port and Playa de la Concha while offering a panoramic view of the sea in the other direction, towards the long views.
The wooden pergola wants to belong to the world of boats: its marked masts become a reference and recall the mainmast of the boats that rest in the nearby port, pergolas, and boats with tensioned cables and a certain metallic shine that reflects the lights of the sea. Its soft wooden shadow is the mirror of the platform, but different: only the birds, the rain, the sun step on it.
The platform consists of a wooden platform. Each arm is five meters wide: just enough for room uses and the passage of people to coexist: wide enough to allow anything, narrow enough to have directionally and allow the close relationships, and avoid desolation when empty.
The platform rises just enough to form a spontaneous bench or seat on its edge, full of views: it may be one of the longest benches in the world, an invitation to see all the sunsets of the year. It then becomes a beach facility that is always open, always available, always to be discovered. Benches and low beams complete the equipment for the access and stay platform to the pools.
The pergola is built with metal poles that support a wooden deck employing tensioners: a light but stable structure. The masts are indicated as lighting elements, marking a certain aerial monumentally that dialogues in the distance with the ships, marking the place with hardly any matter.
Equipment like this cannot and should not be associated only with an interrupted life of three months a year. That is why the installation, when the pools are closed, must continue to be useful. And there is nothing more versatile than a horizontal platform.
The five arms contain different uses and looks. Two towards the city picking up people and their walk, three towards the sea that leads towards the pools and the sea, each one with its own peculiarity: from one of the children to the one who approaches the running lane or the one that offers a view panorama.
Above all, a living facility is proposed that is capable of adapting to the needs of the municipality of Vilagarcía de Arousa. Let time and people decide the specific uses of each moment.
