Botanical Garden of Discovery

The Vallehermoso Botanical Garden aims to reflect, through the exhibition of the valuable native flora and plant species that starred in the America-Europe exchange, the relevance that the Island of La Gomera had in the route of the Americas, covering didactic, cultural, scientific aspects and even tourist.

The scope of action is around the channel of the Vallehermoso ravine, surrounded by traditional cultivation terraces. In the project some rectilinear traces superimpose landscape itineraries. The pedestrian paths, on ramps, zigzag in the landscape, determining landscaped areas, in which the pre-existing green heritage is respected while preserving the centenary palm trees of the place. In the garden, water takes on a special role, emerging like channels in a recessed sheet or flooding a crop that requires it.

A perimeter wall borders the enclosure, coinciding in a section with the nursery-shadehouse, which is integrated with the typology of the omnipresent sorriba walls. A small stepped construction will welcome, inform and illustrate the botanical visitors before the start of the open-air visit. The building is attached to one of the rocky faces of the park, integrating it into the terrain as if it were determined by the mountain itself, resolving the transition between the access level and the beginning of the route through the terraces.

The functional program is reduced and is distributed over two floors; the access, bar and services are located on the upper level; below a showroom and the administrative units. The warehouses and toilets are arranged against the slope, opening the public spaces to the garden through external terraces. The basic construction material is concrete, colored in dark gray, which through different finishing textures is stratified and organically adapts to the terrain.