“EL PORVENIR URBAN FOREST. CITY ACUPUNCTURE” AS A METHOD OF PROMOTING THE QUALITY OF LIFE IN THE METROPOLIS.
In November 2013, the “El Porvenir” Urban Forest was inaugurated in La Campiña, Caracas, for the enjoyment of the people of Caracas. This 4,100 square meter space has a fountain with water jets synchronized with Venezuelan instrumental music, lighting, tables, benches, drinking fountains and other features that make it an oasis in the middle of the city.
Our capital, Caracas, due to its size, the number of its inhabitants and, above all, the complexity of its urban and social fabric, like most large cities in the world, eliminated in its urban densification process, most of its green spaces, to replace them with buildings, shopping malls, parking lots, and even factories or residual areas (for garbage dumps, mechanical waste and machinery depots, etc.).
Therefore, for us it was a fundamental requirement to comply with the United Nations Development Program, specifically Goal 11: “Sustainable Cities and Communities”, which includes: “make investments in public transportation, create green public areas and improve urban planning and management in a participatory and inclusive manner”, in this way we were contributing to the environment , through a site that, as at the time expressed: “It is not just a play area, nor a sports area, but a space for contemplation and enjoyment, where each of the elements have been considered to call for exchange and encounter”.
In such situations, the pretension of allocating large spaces in the center of the city to parks becomes very difficult; hence, the need to identify, through a conscientious search and with the participation of citizens, the smallest enclosures or areas that can be destined to urban greenery. Because of this characteristic, this meticulous search has been called in urban planning as urban or city “acupuncture”.
In this opportunity, we want to tell you another of our experiences as Manager of the cultural institution “PDVSA La Estancia” (2005–2014), in a space that we found practically destined to the deposit of an old playground, in which, not only the children were conspicuous by their absence; but, eventually in their game, they were “accompanied” by a rickety headquarters of the old Police of the city and nothing else.
With the intention of building a typical recreational area, which was its original essence, we went into the land, to happily discover that it extended into one that was adjacent to it, although they were separated from each other by a street where vehicles passed through. This other one was perimetrically closed by a fence, and towards its interior we could make out a group of trees and plants so leafy that they prevented us from having a complete and clear view of it.
We were struck by the fact that such a residual space had been maintained over the years, like a forest in the middle of the city!
While we were carrying out our usual archaeological and social diagnosis, we were approached by a middle-aged man, very well educated in his language and manners, who, concerned, asked us if we were thinking of tearing down everything and building something big. His name was Armando Baez, and he was the “park ranger” of the area, as he called himself, although he did not have any identification, nor did he seem to represent any municipal institution. He told us that he had been living in that arboreal site for 20 years, and occupied a small house made of waste materials, which surprised us, until he later told us that when he was young, he had been thrown out of his house located in the area (which was characterized for many years as destined to high social groups), due to family problems. He had settled there, dedicating himself to create a beautiful garden, so that, with time and his dedication, tropical plants grew, and the centenary trees were kept, with a lot of shade, of those that conform and characterize the patrimony of our Caracas.
The custodian accepted his formal designation as forest ranger of the area and allowed us, accompanied by the proper municipal permits, to tear down the fence that surrounded it, thus encountering a quasi-jungle landscape, with lush trees from which long vines and huge leaves in all possible shades of green were hanging.
We decided to make both spaces into one, leveling the second with the first, to pedestrianize them. On one side, there would be the children’s playground; nearby on the same lot, the renovated Police headquarters; and, on the other, the forest with the new guardian’s house.
On one side of this large space, a popular housing building had been built, one of those developed by the so-called “Gran Misión Vivienda Venezuela”, which would have in the park its natural space for children’s games, recreation and productive rest and solace for young people, workers, and seniors.
The owners of this building, as well as the inhabitants of the surrounding areas, participated with us in all phases of our project.
The characteristics of our “Urban Forest” and its construction are:
Target
To offer residents and visitors a relational space for recreation and contemplation of botanical species and birds, as well as works of art, in the heart of the city (“an urban forest”).
History
- From historical and archeological research, it was possible to identify that between 1879 and 1890, the area of the park was a cemetery that served the former rural hamlet of Sabana Grande (a place where the Caracas people went to “rest and vacationed”), currently “El Recreo” de Caracas Parish (1.5 kilometers rehabilitated by us in 2011). In 1940 it was transformed into La Florida Park for children’s recreation, until it was abandoned in the 1990s.
- In 2012 we started the respective Rehabilitation Project.
The area
· The current space constitutes a facility for the city on a 4,100 m2 plot of land, the result of the integration of its two original plots, previously separated as watertight compartments, plus the street that separated them.
· Two defined uses are generated in the space: a passive area that incorporates an area of 350 m2 of wooden decks or floating walkways, which not only protect the environmental heritage, but also allow the use and walking through it. And an active space, where there is a playful fountain with jets of water spurting randomly from the ground, the innovative urban furniture consisting of 3 large artificial stone “puffs” placed on the 480 m2 of grass planted for this purpose and 100 linear meters of long undulating wooden and concrete benches (quasi aerial) that surround the space, the children’s elements, and a paved surface of 1400 m2.
· The territory of green areas reaches 750 m2.
· Both areas (passive and active) have their respective urban murals on their 665 m2 boundary walls; the first, with an abstract vegetal landscape by Josefina Rondón, whose colors are entangled with the different tones of the trees, ferns and lianas of the same; and, in the active one, the original yellow sculpture by Colette Delozanne, which with its characteristic twists, looks like one more trunk of the many trees located there, this one equipped with holes that allow the game of sound and the visual of children’s imagination; and the oil mural by Ernesto León, where our people can identify the large towers distributed in colored spots, ready to be exploited in favor of the Venezuelan people.
· It has a 55 m2 interactive fountain at ground level, with synchronized water jets and musical ambiance, which, together with the landscaping, offer a unique and multi-sensory experience to visitors.
· The reconstruction of the police stations was carried out, adding all the internal services and services for the public.
· A house for the park ranger was built with all the necessary facilities in the original site used by the ranger, that is, in the passive space of the park, in absolute harmony with the surrounding vegetation and with the access to care for it.
· Public telephones, free Wi-Fi, bicycle parking, perimeter fences with ornamental bamboo row designs, birdbaths, dog waste bins, drinking fountains, and an outdoor movie projection system were added.
The Project
· The so-called “Integral Rehabilitation Project” included historical, urban, and archaeological investigations as part of its Preliminary Diagnosis.
· The research made it possible to identify its heritage character (historical, archaeological, and botanical).
· An inventory and botanical cataloguing of the existing flora was carried out, consisting of thin-stemmed species and tall trees, such as “Araguaney” (Venezuelan national tree), “Búcaro”, “Ceiba” and ornamental plants: “Azalea”, “Cayena” and Jasmine.
· Through archaeological work, buried constructions were identified and codified, as well as remains of objects, animals and plants from the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
· The remains located were associated with the different uses of the park during the time, thus, cemetery, later wasteland, and playground.
· The museography of the original perimeter wall of the old cemetery, an ornamental fence and two lampposts, which were placed in full view of everyone, were carried out.
· Spaces were freed up; non-heritage ruins were demolished and uses were relocated.
The Forest, now recognized as urban heritage in the catalogs of the Venezuelan Cultural Heritage Institute, was immediately put to social use, through many and diverse activities, such as yoga workshops, fairs, vaccination days, cinema, and open-air theater.
Today, the children in the area play with the playful furniture and get wet while jumping from “squirt to squirt” while listening to the children’s music; the young people work with their WIFI, probably preparing their homework or gathering information for the next classes; the movements of yoga and the swaying of the leaves accompany the sound of the voices of those preparing to show the latest movie of an outdoor film festival for everyone’s enjoyment.
The “Bosque Urbano El Porvenir”, which bears the name of the neighboring street, looks precisely to the future, to the improvement in the short time of its surrounding areas, so that, like “the point and circle” in urban planning, it will expand its effects through repeated waves until it encompasses not only the active or passive area of its equipment, but much more beyond them, no longer the active or passive area of its equipment, but far beyond them, so that, like a loom, more and more quality spaces are woven for the people of Caracas, for meeting, for recreation, for life.