The main concept for the achievement of the idea for the project, came, essentially, from the so well known Portuguese sidewalk and from the pattern that I decided to give it. This kind of pavement gained importance because of my will to give a Portuguese traditional image recognizable by everyone that cohabitate it.
This square, and due to the slight depression that constitutes it, turns to be lived in two different heights where the lowest one embraces a more blushful place of relationships between the people who lives it. It's in this lowest place that we can see the Portuguese sidewalk because it is experienced from the outside to the inside. There are also some green areas and a coffee-shop with an esplanade as a way to bring more people to interact in this area.
(Competitor's text)
This essentially simple but luxurious‐looking design eliminates the bunker wall and widens the trench between KHC and the higher park space. This allows abundant space for a broad terraced and grassed patio adjacent to a now accessible west side of KHC. (Grass may not be appropriate for this heavily trafficked area but an extension of the elaborate terrazzo pavement would serve very well in place of it. There is an array of chess tables with chairs (that may need to be more robust) in this depression beside KHC and some lovely black and white striped benches (that might need armrests if they are not to be slept as well as sat on.) There is room also here for shrubs to the west of those benches and a coffee bar at the south end. (There is no opening up of access for non‐medical retail at the west end of KHC in this model but there seems to be no reason why this should not happen.) The only provisos here - apart from likely high cost - is the fence at along the western edge of the depression that looks like it might provide a nocturnal hiding spot, unless it is transparent and the site is well lit. Also, there is no accommodation shown for the existing underground garage ventilation grates - which cannot be made to vanish - as they appear to have in this model. And the steps at the north end of the depression should be exchanged for a ramp, to provide wheelchair accessibility.
The upper park space is narrower in this design than in others, owing to the widening of the next to KHC trench which means there is enough room at the higher level for a N‐S row of just four trees, each with a nearby bench plus a gently meandering N‐S footpath. The trees beside that path are set in a boulevard which might work although it will still require some regular re‐seeding and more frequent watering and mowing.
(Excerpt from the jury's comments)
