Puerta del Sol is closer to having (some) shaded areas, at least during the hottest months and from the summer of 2025. The Local Commission for Historical Heritage has given the green light to the awning solution for the Madrid square proposed by the City Council.
According to the City Council, the solution adopted will make the technical needs of anchoring and resistance to winds compatible with the projection and enhancement of the heritage. It will be a non-permanent auxiliary structure that allows the installation of awnings on the northern semicircular walkway of the square and on the new benches (between the entrances to Arenal and Alcalá streets).
The installation includes a series of stainless steel masts anchored to the new granite benches by means of threaded tubes that allow their installation and removal. Tensioners will be placed on these rigid elements, which are in turn anchored to the façade of the buildings that make up the square on the commercial plinth. These tensioners will allow the installation of a series of light-coloured textile pieces. Once the contract has been awarded, which is still to be put out to tender, the heritage control body will check a sample of the anchors and the fabrics used on the ground.
Since the comprehensive remodelling of Sol was completed in October (with the removal of the whale still pending), Cibeles has been studying alternatives to create shaded areas in this space. All this after the proposal chosen in the competition organised by the City Council and the Official College of Architects of Madrid (COAM) did not contemplate the installation of shade elements. Those responsible for the project later assured that they proposed alternatives in this direction, including the placement of trees, but the Heritage Department ruled out all options.
“With the development of the execution project, it was proposed to plant nine trees in the only space that did not have infrastructure below the level of the pavement, where the largest metro station in Madrid or the Adif commuter train station are located, as well as countless service galleries and infrastructures. When the idea was presented to the Local Commission for Historical Heritage, it ruled that these trees did not make sense because their location did not respond to urban or heritage criteria, but to the opportunity of the absence of a concrete slab under the pavement. Therefore, it ruled that these trees should not be placed,” the Works area details in the same sense.
308,000 euros to solve “the problem of lack of shade”
However, Mayor José Luis Martínez-Almeida’s team included the installation of the awnings in its budget for 2024, with an allocation of 308,000 euros, although the execution will finally be postponed for a year. He then assured that they would be placed temporarily during the months when the highest temperatures are reached in what has come to be called the frying pan of Sol.
It was precisely all these criticisms from citizens, visitors and opposition political groups that caused the municipal government to propose a solution to mitigate the heat and the effect of the sun on Sol. “Since the work was completed and sensitive to this problem of the lack of shade in the square, the City Council has been working to find a solution,” says the Public Works Department.
The local Executive has worked with the same team that had designed the square, led by José Ignacio Linazasoro, who is a professor at the Madrid School of Architecture and an Academician at the Royal Academy of San Fernando. As a result of this collaboration, a basic project was carried out for the installation of awnings which was presented to the Local Commission for Historical Heritage in December 2023. The Commission ruled it as “viable”, but prescribed the presentation of the complete execution project with all the calculations and construction details, as well as the type of textile elements that were proposed for the square before giving its authorization.
“The City Council has been working on this issue for months, and had practically finalised the specifications. Therefore, once this favourable opinion has been obtained, the project will be subject to legal advice and the intervention of the City Council in order to be able to put out to tender its manufacture, assembly and installation, so that, taking into account the administrative deadlines, the awnings can be installed by the summer of 2025”, they specify from the Works area. The City Council boasts that “Puerta del Sol will have shade elements for the first time in its 163 years of life”.
Source: www.eldiario.es
