At the end of last June a new park opened in Barcelona, the Parc del Torrent dels Maduixers. An interesting space, located on Conde de Sert street, which sits on the layout of an old stream, at the foot of the southeast slope of the Collserola mountain range.
It is built over the facilities of the new Bonanova neighborhood cleaning center. Thus, the park is a landscaped roof located over the slab of this facility. For the construction of the park, complex technical solutions or intensive systems for vegetation have not been chosen, but rather a profile has been created by adding compacted soil and a simple drainage system formed by gravel trenches has been implemented.
This space, of just over 4,000m2, is characterized by its terraced form, consisting of five platforms that connect to each other through ramps and stairs, thus adapting to the topography of the environment.
In the Torrent dels Maduixers, vegetation plays a very prominent role, both due to its important presence and the plants used, which almost exclusively are Mediterranean species from different regions of the world with this climate.
Another uniqueness of this park is that the vegetation was planted months before its opening to the public, which allowed a long establishment of the vegetation, from late winter to early summer, without the usual usage pressure in these spaces. Thus, on the day the park opened to the public, the plantings were already lush and stood out in the park's built environment.
This way of proceeding, which is highly recommended, rarely happens here, although it is a common practice in other countries.
Among the park's vegetation you can find many of the Mediterranean species cultivated at Sala Graupera. We will discuss these in more detail in the second part of this article.