Metropol Parasol in Seville by Jürgen Mayer

Since spring of 2011 the city of Seville, a place with a rich architectural past, has a new architectural attraction, that is, a project design by Jürgen Mayer in its geographical centre in the shape of huge tree like towers forming a canopy over the area which the locals have nicknamed “the mushrooms”. The project is born from the necessity which arose when the site, of an old monastery which was used first as a marketplace and then for parking was proposed for an underground garage and new market, however ancient roman ruins were found. As a consequence an international competition was devised in 2004.

The winning scheme was a design with the intention to provide shade. Seville is often called "The frying pan of Spain" due to the high temperatures it endures during its summer period. The project forms four plazas each with a distinct function and solution at different levels. The basement is an archaeological museum, above this there was to be a market place which is now a series of shops, this is spanned without intermediate columns to provide an open view bellow for the roman ruins, a space that is two-storey-high employing a steel Vierendeel frame to achieve its athletics. The roof of the mention shops are floor of a new plaza on the site elevated from the street level in a steel and concrete composite form of construction, and finally the roof canopy which gives its nickname of the mushrooms, with restaurants and a walkway to view the city sights twenty one and a half metres above the plaza.

Originally the bird's nest like structure was to be made of metal a steel skeleton frame, various schemes were investigated which included a two-layer steel shells and a spatial grid of "steel foam". It was realized that that this would prove too expensive with a very much elaborated protection against corrosion, not to mention the problems with the local heat in summer imposed on the structure, so it was opted for a solution in timber for the roof structure, the main reason was a low deadweight, durability for it was foreseen as a least fifty years life span and a low manufacturing and maintenance costs, also timber has a positive image with the public at large as a sustainable product, however once painted the structure does not look like a timber building.

This was not the only change, for in 2006 the baking crisis hit the market in construction, originally the city of Seville was client but the Sacyr company assumed control as representative of the client, and changes in the project were introduced, in the beginning the budget was €60 million was assumed by the city with the condition that the development will be finished by the end of 2010 the final deadline before new elections. However the client altered the programme with the inclusion of a looping route and a restaurant on the top of the canopy, resulting in a cost increased up to €90 million, but the final cost escalated to €127 million.

A key modification of the project was the structure first thought of as a concentric circles strategy but instead it was design as a square grid with the purpose of achieving a much more homogeneous an appearance, the planners decided in favour of a structure of clear orthogonal layout of 1.5 x 1.5 m, overall the roof has a maximum length of 150 m and a width of 70 m and 28 m from the street level. Another important modification was the walkway on top which was changed not crossing over the bridge structure across the street. This was due to security reason, and to save costs. The timber structure employed was laminated timber by the company Finnforest resulting in one the biggest timber structures ever built they were in coordination with Arup engineering and the architect’s office all sharing 3D models and information rapidly to achieve a final optimum solution, with more than 3,000 connection nodes at the intersections of timber elements.

It remains to be seen where this proposal achieves the revenues and fame as projects such the Guggenheim Museum in Bilbao already a well-established success, one that cost less money than this one, the “mushrooms” already has detractors an example is the Pritzker prize winner from Spain, Rafael Moneo, whom in a local conference at the University of Seville called the projects as incomprehensible and a surprise given the care Seville has shown to its historical centre always. However the locals a reclaiming this as their space and making it very useful now, but few local will admit openly linking it although it is now very much part of the landscape of the city, only time will tell it success.

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