Residential settlement – Taboadela (Galicia) – Spain

Taboadela is a small village in Galicia, Spain, where two business parks are to be created to enhance the regional economy. A great number of new inhabitants will choose to live near their work place or will be glad to leave the great cities for the more pleasant country towns’ life style.

That will lead to create a new town which has to be designed from the very beginning with all the themed roads and all the collective themes we can recognize in every existing town we know, in order to design a real town. The master plan foresee only the layout of principal streets and the collective themes’ position in the new grid. Building typologies and houses’ heights are just suggested because the freedom to decide for our homes is up to every citizen, of course according with the building code.

The design shows the town as a whole, as if it has been already built: but time will decide the future of it. Maybe just a single part will be realized, the central neighbourhood or other: the important thing is what ever part of that town will exist it will has a sense for being inscribed in this design which will always provide a possible completion.

Roads and squares
_the promenade  which links the regional road with the new town
_the great square between the business park and the town, it’s like a new town’s gate and will align office buildings and business buildings.
_the main street with shops under the arcades
_the main square in the middle of the town, it’s the town heart and hosts the town hall with the civic tower, the church with the bell tower, the arcades by the church
_the triumphal ways are streets closed by a building at the end: from all the roads leading to the main square you can see the civic tower or the bell tower
_the boulevard runs around the town and binds the other squares
_Camino de Santiago Square
_Theatre Square
_Stadium Square

Collective buildings
_the town hall
_the Church
_the cinema – theatre
_the sports centre – football ground – stadium
_the railway station

Neighbourhoods
There are three neighbourhoods, each one has in the middle a great square with a public garden for play grounds and for children.
The central streets and the main squares are lined up by curtain buildings to create the effect of a real city with a huge density. Instead the neighbourhoods around can have lower density according to the wish of the dwellers who may like living in houses with gardens.

Urban blocks
Buildings will be lined up along the outline of the blocks so that the inner courts can have multiple uses.
They are green areas useful for:
_co-owned gardens
_co-owned swimming pools
_nursery schools
_play grounds, sports grounds
_car parkings

Facilities
Schools can be placed in the squares along the boulevard, according to the number the town will need. The square by the railway station is particularly suitable for students could easily reach it from other towns.
Nursery school will have better location inside the blocks courts, in peaceful green areas near the houses.
Health facilities for a little population could be placed in the town hall in the middle of the new town.

Parkings
This will be a town with no cars parked along the streets and the squares. Parkings will be hidden inside the blocks courts.
Residents parkings will be very near their homes (as it’s not possible to completely eliminate cars yet), while visitors and people coming from outside the town can park anyway, but not in the streets with green parterres and trees’ rows.

Pedestrian areas
The main street and the main square can be pedestrian areas to underline their importance. The path between the old village of Pereiras, along the main street with arcades, can be a long no-car-street.