MALAGA (SPAIN)
Client: Universidad de Málaga
Date: 2017 – ongoing
Status: Competition First Prize – Construction In Progress
Program: Landscape, Urban Design, Architecture, Public Space And Digital Layer
Scope: Concept Design, Design Development, Construction Documents And Construction Management
Surface: 17ac
Ecosistema Urbano, after being awarded a public tender promoted by the University of Malaga in 2016, has developed the Landscape Planning Project for the Louis Pasteur Boulevard and the main public spaces of the Teatinos University Campus. The project has a total surface area of 21 Ha (52 ac); the first phase, comprising a total surface area of 7 Ha (17 ac), started construction in December 2020.
The project, in line with the University of Malaga’s strategies, develops the concept for an open and innovative campus. In order to enhance the academic and social functions within public spaces, the design creates an attractive and comfortable natural environment; it also incorporates technology that allows for a new atmosphere of interaction between the physical and digital environments.
The Louis Pasteur Boulevard project regenerates a large and underused area that is surrounded by infrastructure. This area transforms into the main space of the university campus by combining new spatial and landscape features with highly articulated programmes that improve its climatic comfort and connectivity.
The design enables everyday university life activities — teaching, studying, meeting and reading—to take place in public spaces, all while providing a new green infrastructure for the city.
Four ways of rethinking a campus
Using four different strategies, the boulevard includes different aspects of the campus with a single design:
- Connected Campus: This strategy creates a complete urban layout, through connecting different facilities and opening the university not only to its immediate surroundings, but also to the whole city, focusing primarily on public transportation and pedestrian areas.
- Green Campus: Creates an ecological route that, through a global strategy of sustainable management, recovers space and enhances the potential of existing green spaces such as the Olivar —Olive Grove— or the Botanical Garden.
- Interactive Campus: Allows users to visualize real-time information, interact with the different elements of the public space and adapt them according to their needs. Strategies include the configuration of the bioclimatic conditioning systems to achieve optimal environmental conditions.
- Open Campus: Makes a wide variety of educational meeting spaces and devices available for university students and all citizens, bringing academic activity into the public space and making it more accessible and dynamic.
Digital interactivity and bioclimatic comfort
One of the key aspects of this project is its commitment to using technology as a way of improving the interaction between people and the environment.
Malaga University Campus is the first public space that users can control through an application. In parallel with the construction of the project, the official UMA app was extended with open source modules that allow access to an augmented environment of interactivity and information.
This opens up a whole new world of connections between the digital layer and the physical space. Beyond the typical optimization and automation processes that are common in a ‘smart cities’ approach, this project utilizes a network of sensors and actuators that allow individuals to experience a new level of interactivity: from controlling bioclimatic conditioning systems, changing lighting settings, sending audiovisual content to screens and sound systems, to knowing the atmospheric conditions of the spaces in each area of the park or events programmed, sharing comments or photos associated with specific spaces, unlocking lockers to access extra equipment and even checking out books from an outdoor extension of the university library.
Technology also plays a key role in the environmental conditions of this project. To improve the comfort of the main outdoor spaces, they have been equipped with bioclimatic conditioning systems such as evaporative cooling or geothermal air circulation. All these devices have a low level of energy consumption and are powered by solar panels integrated into the newly built structures. These systems, together with the passive bioclimatic strategies widely implemented in the design, foster a continuous use of the space throughout the year.
Open academic spaces connected by a natural landscape
The first construction phase, which covers an area of 7 Ha (17 ac), is articulated around three main systems: the “Hubs” or activity nodes, the large green area and the boulevard, a green corridor that connects the former two systems.
This project is also designed to manage the circulation of water in a more sustainable and efficient way, by slowing its runoff, creating a network of infiltration areas and planting species with low water consumption.
The Boulevard is a green corridor that connects programmatic elements such as the technological “Hubs,” open classrooms or spaces for social encounter, with the formerly neglected natural spaces that have been transformed into urban biodiversity reserves.
The main path is protected from traffic by artificial topographies covered with vegetation, creating landscapes that bring character to the emptiness of the suburban environment. These new landscapes enclose and protect spaces, making bioclimatic conditioning achievable at the Teatinos Campus.
The Climatic and Digital Hub is the main space, located next to the Metro station and is designed for large-capacity events. It is equipped with a technological canopy that houses an interactive screen, a digital water curtain, climate conditioning systems and energy production systems that provide power for the entire park.
The Open Classrooms are spaces that are surrounded and protected by vegetation and are equipped with interactive technologies that enable academic and social events. The open classrooms transfer the university experience into the public space.
The Open Library at the Olive Grove is a natural environment equipped with light infrastructure and urban furniture elements that transform the grove into a space for creativity, leisure, learning, reading, exchanging information and resting.
Along with water collection systems and infiltration areas, vegetation along the Stream cleans and re-naturalizes the stream, limits soil erosion, allows for resources to be managed efficiently and enhances biodiversity.
Combining this strategic approach with site-specific interventions, the new Campus of Teatinos adopts a vision where public space and landscape can support playful and educational experiences, making interdisciplinary knowledge accessible not only to students, but to all citizens.
A connected, open, interactive and green campus.
An intelligent natural space that combines positive energy balance with bioclimatic comfort.
A public space where collaboration, creativity and learning define the urban scene.
