Creating a place where the river is really experienced – the Cascara bridges link both the river and the community together.

Arganzuela Park and the Salon de Pinos are connected by two slow traffic bridges, the Puentes Cascara. In contrary to usually technical and pragmatic pedestrian infrastructural bridges they were designed as a massive concrete dome with a rough exterior. These bridges have the scale of park elements and not of the infrastructure.

Like geodes, the fine detailing becomes visible when entering inside the bridge. The ceilings have a colourful and intricate mosaic depicting local community members ‘falling’ from the sky and were designed by the Spanish artist Daniel Canogar. In the edge of the ceiling, the lighting was included which illuminates the artwork and the deck by reflection on the reflective tiles. The elegant slim steel deck was created by more than one hundred cables, resembling whale baleens, and provide the necessary tension for the bridge structure.

West 8, working together with MRIO arquitectos, a joint venture of three Madrid based firms led by Ginés Garrido Colmenero, designed the master plan for the master plan for the reclaimed riverbanks and the new urban area above the tunnels of the M30 highway in Madrid.