Garciagerman Arquitectos Created A Huge Cacti Garden To Support Plant Culture in Madrid

26/4/22, 19:56 Garciagerman Arquitectos created a huge cacti garden to support plant culture in Madrid
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Garciagerman Arquitectos Created A Huge Cacti

Garden To Support Plant Culture In Madrid
Spain Architecture News - Sep 05, 2017 - 16:30  14928 Views
    
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A huge poetic garden houses more than 400 species of plants such as cacti,
succulent, lavender and rosemary collected from five continents (Arizona, Oasis,
Taverns, Tuscany, Guajira) to celebrate xerophytic plants and the production of a
whole culture of interests and events around them. This experimental garden is
located between highway and forest in San Sebastián de los Reyes - just 20
minutes from the center of Madrid.
https://worldarchitecture.org/articles/cvgpm/garciagerman_arquitectos_created_a_huge_cacti_garden_to_support_plant_culture_in_madrid.html 1/17
Desert City
de ImagenSubliminal
01:23
Video by Imagen Subliminal
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Built as an experimental landscape botanical garden, this project - called Desert

City - proposes an educational, sustainable and ecological complex in which to
overlap activities that range from the exhibiting, growing and breeding of cactus
from all over the world in a large garden and greenhouse, to housing an array of
leisure activities such as presentations, small conventions, workshops or
exhibitions.
Designed by Spanish architecture studio Garciagerman Arquitectos, the 16,000-

square-metre garden complex, including both indoor and outdoor gardens,
proposes an exclusive destination for nature lovers.
The movie-like garden setting combines the aesthetic elements of the natural
landscapes of the arid and semi-arid zones of the planet like cactus with native
 
plants of Mediterranean climate (lavender, rosemary, etc.) that surprise by its
freshness and dense vegetation.
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The large building contains, besides the greenhouse and exhibition/sales space,
restaurant, shop, storage, and office areas. These activities are sheltered by a big
lightweight container that responds, in terms of scale and materiality, to the near
presence of the A-1 Highway.
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A "billboard-building", parallel to the road, organized internally by a sequence of

symmetries organized around a cloister-like cactus garden, which receives
newcomers, and the greenhouse space, covered by a cable roof designed
according to the logic of tensegrity structures.
The Desert City was initiated by Mercedes Garcia Bravo, who studied Agronomic
Engineering after thirty years of experience on the pharmaceutical industry, and the
project is defined as "a biotechnology nursery specializing in xerophilism."
Mercedes Garcia Bravo purchased a former wasteland four years ago to trigger
plant culture in Madrid and to create a new aesthetic of gardens based on the
world of xerophytic plants.
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"We cultivate, expose, investigate and spread about cacti and other xerophytic
plants, many of them native to the Madrid region itself," said Mercedes Garcia
Bravo.
"Desert City is my dream, my passion. I always wanted to launch a project like this,
to create a new aesthetic of gardens based on the world of xerophytic plants.
Create a new concept of modeling the landscape with plants that need little water
consumption, a responsible use of water, so important for the sustainability of the
planet," she added.
Despite its hybrid program, the complex’s construction is systematized through

repetition, modulation and prefabrication of elements, resulting in a huge abstract
stretched out skeleton that communicates its intense inner workings and the
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veiled presence of greenery as seen from the passing car through a tinted, watery
glass facade.
Construction incorporates sustainable solutions such as transparent photovoltaic

glass, geothermal power, water recovery systems, solar controls, and extensive
plantings in the site, originally a wasteland.
"The overlapping of apparently excluding situations (commercial exploitation of

leisure events vs. exemplary "green" business; building as sole infrastructure vs.
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atmospheric and "soft" finishes; size vs. fragility; oasis by the highway,…), results in
a proactive and ingenious initiative suited for times of opportunity," said
Garciagerman Arquitectos.
This XL infrstructural construction - located between highway and forest -

harboring twin oasis for cactus breeding and a mixed-eco cultural programme. In
 Desert City, many projects are developed in various scales and themes.
 Its spectrum ranges from gardens in single-family homes to landscaping for large
corporations, through landscaping in hotels, business parks and shopping centers,

urbanization or reduced surface space such as terraces or attics.
There are infinite aesthetic combinations with xerophytic plants, whose

transgressor style and practicality make them an option of great interest for the
decoration of natural environments.
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Project facts
 Architect: Garciagerman Arquitectos/Jacobo García-Germán

Architectural team: Jacobo García-Germán, Miguel López, Raquel Díaz de la
Campa, Marta García, Laura Carrero, Martha Sosa Dias, Lidia de Lucas, Marta
Roldán, Andrea Gutierrez, Victoria Álvarez, Margot Roset, Paula Lizcano, Alba Gil,

Celia Sánchez
Building firm: Isolux Corsán
Digital furniture manufacture: 109 FabLab
Consultants: Antonio Usero (strategy and management), Mario García (quantity
surveyor), Felipe F Sanz/Consult-E (structural engineer), Úrculo Ingenieros
(mechanicals), Arenas Ingenieros (structural engineers greenhouse roof), Lastra &
Zorrilla (tecnical development & manufacture ETFE textiles), Patricia Gammichia
(landscaping), Ángel Sampedro (mobility project & traffic studies), Alberto Charlez
(site manager)
All images © Imagen Subliminal (Miguel de Guzmán and Rocío Romero)
> via Garciagerman Arquitectos
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Garciagerman Arquitectos Created A Huge Cacti Garden To Support Plant Culture in Madrid

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26/4/22, 19:56 Garciagerman Arquitectos created a huge cacti garden to support plant culture in Madrid

Garciagerman Arquitectos Created A Huge Cacti

Video by Imagen Subliminal

Built as an experimental landscape botanical garden, this project - called Desert

Designed by Spanish architecture studio Garciagerman Arquitectos, the 16,000-

A "billboard-building", parallel to the road, organized internally by a sequence of

Despite its hybrid program, the complex’s construction is systematized through

Construction incorporates sustainable solutions such as transparent photovoltaic

"The overlapping of apparently excluding situations (commercial exploitation of

This XL infrstructural construction - located between highway and forest -

There are infinite aesthetic combinations with xerophytic plants, whose

 Architect: Garciagerman Arquitectos/Jacobo García-Germán

All images © Imagen Subliminal (Miguel de Guzmán and Rocío Romero)

> via Garciagerman Arquitectos

Paid Content Recommended by

Other Readers Also Found These Interesting...

Mariam Kamara And

World Architecture Community Awards 40th

Atelier Deshaus Designs Mountain-Looking

BIG Designs Research SOM Completes 800

AL_A Selected To Design Belgrade

Founded in 2006, World Architecture Community provides

Get Started Sections Social Media About WAC Contact Us

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