Exploring Parque Juan Carlos 1

After a failed attempt to reach Parque Juan Carlos 1 by bicycle, I decided to finally take the metro. It's just a couple stops before the airport in Madrid and is a large sculpture park built in the 90's. I could see this strange series of sculptures on a hill and from a distance they looked like buildings. 

Now, in my Valencia post I complained a lot about the disregard of context. But I have to say, that in this park, it is so large that defies the context of the area around it if there ever was any. It is far out, near the airport, near a large modern business complex hosting a large building for congress and many corporate headquarters. On some of the other sides there is residential that is relatively new as well. So the area may have been planned together. But it made me wonder about the handling of context when you are designing in the middle of nowhere with little context to draw from? 

The park plan is a large circle of water with large hills, monumental sculptures, and grids of trees. Its geometry creates an internal logic that, while a little strange, is very strong and consistent. And it was very purposeful the way that the columnar trees and vertical elements reflected in the waters surfaces (below)

There was also a lot of careful consideration to the horticulture. The park was divided into zones of planting types. Above shows a more tropical zone. It was much more lush and varied than other Madrid parks I have seen.

Some of the sculptures were interesting and playful

I especially loved this landscape sculpture covered in fake turf! I saw some kids riding BMX bikes on it so I assumed it was a play structure. But when you get close you can see it has a moat around it with signs to keep off. It was meant only as sculpture, but it does cry out for interaction!

Towards the end of my tour I came upon two large green hills. Most of the park is not irrigated so the lush grass really made the land forms stand out. They were very large hills so I am not sure if they were part of a landfill or just made to create vistas. One hill has a grove of mature olive trees on the top shown above. The other has a metal dome and 4 cypress trees. I spent some time on top of the hill looking out at the park thinking about context. And like most things, I decided that "it depends". There are times for connection and there are times for standing apart, and times when parks create the logic for the areas around them. Juan Carlos 1 may be a strange park but it does successfully create its own little world!