Plaza Mayor in Medina del Campo

Medina del Campo, Valladolid. Spain | 2011

Medina del Campo City Council

The project for the Plaza Mayor offers the opportunity to study its history to recover and update its most important values. It is not a simple restoration, but a contemporary reinterpretation in order to give new uses, new image and an efficient materiality to the Plaza. The project reinforces its horizontal condition and the existing materials, and introduces green areas and a canopy with plants in the perimeter. An underground parking completes the intervention.

The geometry arranges the existing traces, the pedestrian transits and also the flows that come into the square. All these invisible lines define a strategic diagram which serves as basis to set up different surfaces.

The severe weather in Medina points out the need of protection against rain and sun. The historical porches which surround the Plaza Mayor are the clever architectural answer to this necessity, remaining effective through decades. The project reinterprets the old porches in the form of a wood canopy of twelve meters width. All public functions such us children playgrounds, bar terraces, toilets, parking exits and green areas are located under this new element.