New sea walk in Sagunto Harbour

Sagunto, Spain

Structural typology: ROOF STRUCTURES
Date: June, 2022
Owner: Autoridad Portuaria de Valencia
Scope: detailed design

The construction project for the new seafront promenade in the North Zone of the Port of Sagunto is developed on the land occupied by the landward part of the current jetty (pantalán).

The new promenade is essentially laid out on the land currently occupied by the landward zone of the existing jetty, which must therefore be demolished beforehand.
It connects with the end of the Travesía del Mediterráneo at the boundary of the port service area, and runs parallel to it along the platform over which the landward part of sections 0 and 1 of the jetty currently runs, up to the springing of its maritime part.

The aim is to create a new urban space which, starting from the land released after the demolition of the landward part of the current jetty, connects the end of the current Travesía del Mediterráneo with the start of the maritime section of the jetty, whose refurbishment will be the subject of another project independent of this one.

Furthermore, the promenade will become the endpoint of the Sierra Menera greenway, the longest in Spain, which is why it has been considered essential to provide a bike lane in keeping with the end of this greenway.

At the same time, a large part of the new promenade runs in direct interaction with the beach, so the promenade must provide connection areas and permeability with it.
Finally, the new promenade is conceived as a cultural, leisure and recreational centre for citizens, which is why a series of activity areas have been created enabling the development of museum zones, dining areas, children"s playgrounds, sports areas, etc.

In this regard, it should be noted that one of the key driving ideas of the project, probably the most important, has been to highlight the heritage and historical character of the surroundings. To this end, the new promenade is conceived as an environment that reconciles leisure with a museum-style approach to the jetty and to Sagunto"s own industrial heritage. This has been permanently borne in mind both in the design of the promenade and in the configuration of the activity areas and finishes.

Consequently, a design solution has been proposed for the promenade, configuring it along two main itineraries:
− one practically at beach level, running across the beach to the coastline, and
− another, the main one, which, starting from the current urbanization of the municipal roads, first rises in level via a flight of access stairs to the main promenade, then runs at a fairly uniform level, forming a core of activity and leisure for users, and finally rises again up to the future start of the jetty.

CENTRAL ZONE OF THE PROMENADE AND ACTIVITY AREAS
A large part of the activities for the user takes place in this zone, due to the fact that it is the longest stretch of the promenade.

Its use has been structured around two very clearly defined types of areas:
a) a transit and through-flow zone, which users employ to move along the promenade, and
b) a series of activity zones, where the user steps away from the "main path" to enjoy the various leisure activities offered by the intervention.

The transit zone guarantees a "clean", obstacle-free itinerary 4.70 m wide along the entire length of the promenade.

On the seaward edge of the promenade, outside this transit zone, different areas are located for different activities:
− dining (two areas, one at the beginning and one at the end of the promenade),
− children"s playgrounds,
− fishing,
− museum-style activity.

In addition, along this entire zone there is a shade canopy, made up of nine modules with the same typology but two different configurations, one short (42.53 m) and one long (59.48 m). They are built with a concrete structure consisting of sets of four or five columns of variable chamfered triangular section, on which a flat beam of rectangular section runs, supporting a set of timber louvres which, spaced 0.50 m apart, provide suitable shading according to the position of the sun throughout the day.

The pavements are made of high-end artificial stone (concrete). A range of colours and a layout have been chosen that seek to highlight the transit zones, the activity areas and the interaction with the roof structures, forming rest areas in the manner of agoras evenly distributed along the itinerary.



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