Some of the strategies which were devised for the Ribera del Marco have been later deployed in other places of Cáceres. This project responds to Cáceres’ urban expansion over dehesa environmentally-sensible areas around the city. It is located in the watershed of Guadiloba reservoir which supplies with fresh water the city of Cáceres.

Unfolding ecological urbanism design techniques, this new part of the city takes on board how the water flows through the place. Unfolding a topographical understanding, the project articulates two green corridors which give continuity to the ecological vectors —water and biodiversity— which are present in this place.

Housing is located between the green corridors giving place to an urbanism which, as a consequence of occupying the site’s watersheds, focuses on the recollection, canalization and storage of water before it reaches the river bed. Slowing down the flow of water enables, not only to irrigate small orchards and ludic gardens, but also to generate a bioclimatic urbanism which similarly to la Alhambra and Generalife, generates through water and vegetation cool places.

The dehesa and its productive systems are preserved, guaranteeing its environmental and economic sustainability. The dehesa system is complemented by the riparian vegetation which colonizes the green corridors. The objective is to create a new sustainable urbanity —ecological and intense—capable of overlaying the natural, productive, social and ludic systems which exist in this place.

Location: Suertes de Santamaría, Cáceres

Heritage: UNESCO World Heritage Site

Date: 2010-2023

Client: Agrupación Urbanística Suertes de Santamaría

Area: 70,1 has., 723 dwellings

Project architects: TAAs (Javier García-Germán + Alia García-Germán)

Project team: Javier García-Germán, Alia García-Germán, Raquel Gutiérrez, Paula Jiménez, Diego Mascareño, Jesús Meseguer, Manuel Montoro, Alba Sospedra

Consultants: Pronorba S.L.

Quantity Surveyor: Emilio Gómez Calero

Budget: 11.360.000€