Parque Cuchillitos de Tristán, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

The Parque Cuchillitos de Tristán in Santa Cruz de Tenerife was inaugurated in February 2007. The park located between the neighborhoods of Tristán, Miramar, Camino del Hierro and Polígono de Ofra has an area of 32,500 m². It takes its name from the farm that used to be on the land where it is located.

Architecture

The architect designer of the park is Fernando Menis, who faced the following starting points.

The important unevenness of the abrupt original topography, with differences of almost 36m between the western and eastern borders. The distant views that arise in the place towards Santa Cruz and the peaks of Anaga. The prevailing winds come from the northeast. The strong aridity of the area. The disparity of existing urban connections in its perimeter. The layout of the resulting park is organic, "English garden" style, with free forms and winding paths, which define open and natural spaces, in search of sensory experiences. The network of paths of free geometry adapted to the topography, defines forms reminiscent of volcanic lava flows of the island, as lava pours down the mountain slopes, and allows a tour of the entire park, in a natural way, saving, with gentle slope, the topographic difference of 36m between its ends.

The pancake has three zones:

The first area, located in the western half, is defined by the large, slightly circular esplanade covered with grass as a meadow with a gentle upward slope, which is framed and protected by a steep upward slope, populated with trees, and is connected to the access at the western end, by means of the pre-existing staircase.

The second area, located in the northern part of the eastern half, where the pre-existing viewpoint is located, is organized based on the same, establishing two winding paths that are part of the network of organic routes of the park, and adjusting the topography and vegetation of the area.

The vegetation arranged around the viewpoint, with controlled height, in addition to screening the forcefulness of its imposed presence, acts as a protective barrier between the surrounding neighbors and visitors to the viewpoint, so as to avoid unwanted visual relations.

The third area, located in the southern part of the eastern half, is organized on the basis of the descending sequence of free and open forms, evocative of volcanic lava flows, in which specific uses of games or rooms are arranged for the enjoyment of children, young people, adults and the elderly.

The boundary with the urban fabric is established by a pedestrian path that loses the qualities of a sidewalk, simplifying and enhancing the transition between the park and the built city. This path, like the park's interiors, expands or retracts according to circumstances and needs, making the meeting points more cordial.

In this way, the relationship of the park with the urban fabric becomes friendlier, seeking its complicity and involvement with the social environment that inhabits it. The sidewalk ceases to be a sidewalk, to become a linear square for the enjoyment of citizens who wish to walk through the area with the perception of road traffic more attenuated. This space, which links the urban fabric with the park, is dilated in the form of four areas that make up the four main entrances to the park: the one located at the eastern end, which connects with the roundabout-roundabout, the one at the opposite end, in the upper area to the west, the one that collects the flow of the residents of the Tristán neighbourhood, located to the north, and the one located in the south-east, which connects with the area of sports facilities.

Cuchillitos Park is a social park: it offers a set of six areas of specific use for the enjoyment of young and old, ranging from the most intense uses of children's games with swings, slides, etc. that guarantee the total safety of the youngest users, adult games, and the practice of skateboarding that, as a sculpture, is located on the ground with definition of the regulatory curves for the practice of this sport. And, on the other hand, the quieter areas designed for the elderly, where there is a petanque area, a sitting area with a fountain, and a third one for resting.

As for the vegetation, the pre-existing trees were preserved and palm trees transplanted from other parts of the city were reused. The park was thought of from its early stages, how it would be while the vegetation did not grow so that it would always have something to offer, aromas, colors and the vision of a park inspired by a painting by Kandinsky.

The projected vegetation, which is currently growing, reinforces the ideas of a free and naturalistic park, based on different actions.

A Green Screen of tall, colourful green trees was laid out, surrounding the north-west exterior of the open space-meadow, in a circular fashion, with the intention of delimiting the space and serving as a backdrop for possible outdoor activities for large crowds.

A meadow was created, on a gentle west-east slope, by means of a continuous plane of grass, in the manner of the open spaces of landscaped parks, such as the central space of New York's Central Park.

The organisation of the Park as a whole, from its lowest area at the eastern end to the highest in the west, around the central space of the meadow, is configured as if it were a comet, with its meandering trails, like colourful flames in continuous movement. The viewpoint, as a gently emerging area, becomes the head of the comet, from which fragments of trails emerge, with organic shapes reminiscent of the silhouette of fire.

In each of these dynamic spaces, native species of different colors are planted in their flowering, so that in the spring, there is a festival of aroma and color in continuous movement.

On the rocky slopes that make up the terraces and the slopes of the circular promontory and the viewpoint, there is low gully vegetation and fruit trees, which is already managing to make the rocky accumulation disappear, covering it with vegetation, as if it were a mountain slope.

The aromatic plants placed inside the perimeter protection fence, as they grow, make it disappear, integrating it into the "nature" of the park.

In short, we propose a natural park, with a strong landscape component, with a diversity of areas, sensations, aromas and colours, intensely seeking to provide opportunities for new and continuous sensory experiences.