The new Duquesa de Osuna Square will be a place where the green and monumental fabric of El Capricho Garden will meet the uneven surrounding urban fabric. With its zigzagging traces, the proposal restores the vegetable matter of the garden and the mineral surfaces of the public urban space. The new space extends the geometry of El Capricho Garden beyond its physical boundary so it blends with the alignments, streets and paths of the neighbourhood. It is a dual space, a square and an orchard that responds to the dual character of the place. The monumental square provides an appropriate setting for the future use of the Palace and the House of Trades as a museum. An orchard, adapted to the topography and civic use, defines this new public space open to the city.

The square

The Square, with its sober design and noble materiality, unifies, with a widespread rug of granite paving blocks, the Palace and the House of Trades. To the north of the Square, there is a basin from which water flows down a terraced fountain that adapts to the topography and along zigzagging strips that collect rain water and distribute it to the planted terraces. Also towards the northern end of the square, a green surface terrace overlooks the future fruit orchard.

The orchard

The southern end of the site was historically used as a service area of the Dukes of Osuna Palace. It had an orchard that now recovers its character as a Valencian orchard, a name still used by the neighbours to identify the place. Its new layout alternates smooth terraces planted with trees with horizontal paved areas for civic use. Zigzagging soft and hard surfaces gently define the topography, and combine fruit trees and open spaces. The fruit trees delimit and create a sequence of spaces to wonder calming and to rest.