Edgar Mazo’s Parque Prado in Medellín, Colombia, is a device to restore ecosystems while enhancing human interaction
More than 4,000 creeks flow into Río Medellín, in the narrow Aburrá Valley. Built on either side of its namesake river, Colombia’s second biggest city has witnessed waves of urbanisation, both planned and unplanned, that have gradually spread over the surrounding hills and paved over bodies of water. In 1924 for example, the Quebrada Santa Elena, the stream supplying the city’s aqueduct until the 1800s, was covered up to build a highway. In the 1950s, some 30km of the Río Medellín were channelised, and most of its tributaries have since been encased in concrete, adversely impacting not only water bodies but also the ecosystems they support.
Efforts to restore these ecosystems include the foundation of the Instituto Mi Río in 1992 and, more recently, the Plan de Renaturalización de Medellín. Launched in 2016, the plan’s initial implementation phase involved the creation of more than 120 neighbourhood parks, the enhancement of 30 green corridors, and the revegetation of pedestrian streets in the city centre. Through nature‑based solutions, the plan aims to restore ecosystems and mitigate the effects of climate change. The removal of asphalt surfaces increases water infiltration and reduces the risk of flooding; the planting of urban orchards, ground covers and vertical gardens reduce both temperatures and pollution while enhancing ecological connectivity. According to local authorities, the results were quickly apparent: the revegetation of Avenida Oriental, one of Medellín’s main arteries, reduced the temperature by 3°C, while several species of bird, lizard and frog that had not been seen for decades are returning to the city.Open to the public since 2020, Parque Prado is one of the pilot projects of the Plan de Renaturalización. It is located in a dense area close to the city centre, on a sloping 5,500m2 parcel with a height difference between the east and western edges of about seven metres. Edgar Mazo, head of local landscape architecture office Connatural, was commissioned by the city council to complete this project together with another 20 smaller parks and other interventions that follow similar principles and were built across the city between 2017 and 2020.
The site that is now Parque Prado was originally enclosed and built-up but had fallen into ruin and hosted various dubious activities. Edgar Mazo’s design cleared some of the built fabric but preserved fragments in a state of semi‑ruin
Credit: Connatural Arquitectos
'The preservation of the houses’ facades turns them into testimonies of the city’s middle‑class neighbourhoods’
Credit: Felipe Walter
The site was owned by the municipality for more than 10 years and, although several initiatives were drafted for the site, none had come to fruition. The plot remained walled; it was neglected and gave the surrounding streets a sense of insecurity. When Mazo first visited, he found it overgrown and filled with rubble. On the southern edge, the abandoned structures of six two‑storey houses, comprising three underground levels, served as a hiding place for drug trafficking and other illegal activities. In the centre of the plot, a two‑storey car park continued to operate irregularly.
Emulating the work of an archaeologist, Mazo, together with construction workers, began by stripping the car park out; walls and slabs were removed to leave only columns, beams and retaining walls standing. To prevent damaging the existing vegetation, demolition processes were carried out carefully with manual tools such as hammers and chisels. Resulting rubble was used to fill the houses’ basements, to which soil was later added on top. Of the houses, only facades were kept, supported by new steel structures on which climbers are now growing. Although the houses were not listed or protected, the preservation of their facades turns them into testimonies of the city’s middle‑class neighbourhoods. The material resulting from the demolition of the houses’ upper levels was used to sculpt the park’s topography, creating spaces of varying scales, characterised by different atmospheres: there are small pockets of open space nestled in the landscape, a wider and flat central space, and more irregular terrain, with mounds 700 to 900mm tall, that serves as a children’s playground.
A variety of public spaces of differing degrees of privacy and enclosure have been created, from broad plazas to quiet pockets
Credit: Isaac Ramírez Marín
A former car park structure has been stripped back and now provides shaded areas to sit and rest
Credit: Isaac Ramírez Marín
Vegetation grows around its concrete armature
Credit: Isaac Ramírez Marín
The ambition of the project is to repair and enhance an ecosystem where existing species can thrive. Before construction began, forest engineer Mauricio Jaramillo collected seeds and saplings from the site, saving them for later use. Middle‑sized plants such as fountain grasses (Pennisetum setaceum) and taros (Colocasia esculenta) now enclose smaller spaces, while taller species such as trumpet trees (Handroanthus chrysanthus) and kapok trees (Pseudobombax septenatum) provide shade in open areas. Ground cover such as pinto peanuts (Arachis pintoi) and climbers such as blue skyflowers (Thunbergia grandiflora) are gradually taking over built remains; their flowering, along with that of different types of shrubs, aims to attract insects and birds.
‘The ambition of the project is to repair and enhance an ecosystem where existing species can thrive’
By intertwining vegetation and built structures in a new topography, an intricate public space has been created, abundant in atmospheres that facilitate interactions between people and with the landscape. The different types of spaces allow various activities to coexist: the plaza hosts concerts and gatherings, while people can exercise in a smaller paved square, and cubicles accommodate shops. There are winding paths and more intimate spaces furnished with stone benches, while lookout platforms offer views to the surrounding city.
The Plan de Renaturalización builds on urban interventions developed in Medellín over the past decades. The widely published construction of public transport, libraries and schools in low‑income neighbourhoods aimed to facilitate access to public services and reduce inequalities (AR February 2011). More recently, the need for public spaces at a metropolitan scale was addressed by Parques del Río (AR November 2019), while initiatives such as the Unidades de Vida Articulada or UVAs (AR June 2015) and Parque Prado open the discussion about the design and role of public spaces at the neighbourhood scale. Although both the UVAs and Parque Prado operate at a local scale, they differ in design approach and the way they frame activities and interactions. The open spaces of the UVAs are mostly paved and equipped with water mirrors and jets, inviting a more active use; it is common to see children running and playing, and larger groups gathering. On the other hand, the intricate spatial composition and abundant vegetation of Parque Prado encourages more private activities and a closer connection with nature and the landscape.
Raised walkways have been added to allow access to terraces on the upper floors
Credit: Isaac Ramírez Marín
However, confined spaces can negatively impact the experiences of more vulnerable groups such as children and women, according to the prospect‑refuge theory of British geographer Jay Appleton. He argued that people feel safer in public spaces that offer a balance between enclosed refuges and open prospects. Excluding the large paved square in its lower, western part, Parque Prado privileges the former. Although this may be circumstantial to the day and time I was in the park – a Saturday morning – or linked to the fact that the Prado neighbourhood where the park is located is not considered safe, during my visit I saw mainly adult men, either having phone calls, smoking, or gathered in groups of three or four.
Although it cannot solve all the neighbourhood’s problems at once, Parque Prado is a positive example demonstrating that parks can serve as alternatives to more conventional infrastructure projects to repair ecological harm and help mitigate the effects of climate change. By focusingon demolition and reuse, keeping material consumption to a minimum and promoting nature‑based solutions, Parque Prado and the wider Plan de Renaturalización signify a shift toward a new generation of urban thinking. While Parques del Río and the UVAs made heavy use of impermeable surfaces, Parque Prado and other more recent interventions prioritise permeability and insist on the necessity of working more responsibly with nature – an approach that echoes the work of French landscape architect Gilles Clément and other projects in cities such as Paris and Barcelona.
The facades of the pre-existing houses remain along one edge of the park, held up by a steel structure which also acts as a pergola for climbing vegetation
Credit: Isaac Ramírez Marín
Reverting the damage inflicted on Medellín’s ecosystems and water bodies will take decades, but further action is already taking place. Last year, EAFIT University in Medellín commissioned Mazo and his team to take on the design of a communal space on its campus linked to the restoration of La Volcana, a creek that was channelised and covered along segments of its course. The removal of asphalt from a former car park to expose its tributaries, along with the revegetation of the area, will contribute to its restoration. Rather than continuing to pour concrete into very mineral public spaces, urban projects should more frequently involve breaking down paved surfaces.
