Turia Garden (Bofill's stretch)

In 1958, after the flood of October 1957, the “Solución Sur” was approved: the Turia would be diverted to the south of the city, and its old bed was then earmarked for motorways, railway stations and industrial zones. Manifestos from professional bodies and from the Comisión Pro-Cauce (“El llit és nostre i el volem verd”, 1976), together with popular mobilisation, secured the transfer of ownership of the bed to the city by a decree of Juan Carlos I in 1976; in 1979 the land was definitively designated a green zone and public park. A first national ideas competition, called in 1978, failed.

In 1981 the preliminary scheme for the special plan for the interior reform of the old riverbed was commissioned from Ricardo Bofill's Taller de Arquitectura, and its work was exhibited at the Lonja in the summer of 1982. The definitive special plan, approved in 1984, led to 18 sections (T1 to T18), from Mislata to the Nazaret district. A new competition awarded the first development projects in 1985, among them section T10-11, which went to Ricardo Bofill's Taller de Arquitectura. Its classical theme was criticised at the time for having no connection with the history of the place.

The preliminary scheme, titled “Los jardines clásicos del Turia”, proposed a linear park with a rigorous geometry. A vast pine wood structured the sequence of gardens, planted with orange trees, palms and cypresses, whose composition was to follow the shape of the riverbed in each one.

The project for section T10-11 follows this classical theme faithfully: a central axis of symmetry lines up the trees and all the architectural elements, including the large pond that sets off the Palau de la Música. The pond, designed by Bofill, lies in front of the façade of the Palau, a glass building by José María de Paredes that opened in 1987.

Other sections are the work of other teams, such as T2 (Vetges Tu i Mediterrània) and T3 (Otegui, Gisbert and Noguera).

The garden's more than nine kilometres, which follow the old Turia riverbed, are used for walking, for cycling away from traffic and for running; it also has football, rugby, athletics and skating facilities.

Bofill's stretch occupies the old riverbed between the Mar bridge and the Àngel Custodi bridge; from the Mar bridge, steps lead down into the garden. The neighbouring Palau de la Música is at Paseo de la Alameda 30.