Plaza del Cerrillo, Public Square
Horcajo de Santiago

Prize winning project in the 2013 Architecture & Urbanism Biennial, Spain.  

A new public square was created in the old town of Horcajo de Santiago (Cuenca). The square occupies land belonging to a 1960s school buiding opposite which is an early medieval church. 

Located close to many key civic buildings and in a prominent position in the old town, this new square needed to improve the urban landscape and provide a valuable public amenity for the local population. 

A generous open space has been created where areas of pale limestone setts are edged with long clean slabs of the same material.   These paved areas alternate with gravelled rectangles of equal volume interrupted at intervals with simple stone slab seating or wooden benches.

A single species of tree planted in grid layout provide the shade for the seating area and reflect the paired back aesthetic of the scheme.