Renaturalización y restauración paisajística del jardín industrial, Museu de les Aigües. Parc de les Aigües

The industrial garden of Central Cornellà is a unique existing example in our territory. This 11-hectare site with the Museu de les Aigües has become a benchmark in education promoting the values of water. The Central Cornellá is AGBAR's main historical asset with a practically unique fact: more than a century after its construction, the plant continues to perform the same function for which it was built, the extraction of water from the Llobregat River aquifer and its impulsion to the Barcelona city water network.

Aiming to integrate and recover the industrial garden into the heritage complex, the restoration project was based on different axes. The main one is to continue it is industrial function but adding the environmental and landscape interpretation of the surroundings and it´s didactic value, integrating the heritage and the installation of different emblematic fountains, most outstanding being the Gaudí Waterfall.

The recovery of the industrial garden is part of an integral project of improvement, restoration and conditioning at a heritage and a landscape level.

For the recovery of the space, water is the main sustainable and resilient element linked to the mitigation of the environmental challenges, resource scarcity and meeting the UN Sustainable Development Goals SDGs, following the guidelines of ICOMOS, ICOM and UNESCO. This is the motivation for use various innovative systems and traditional techniques based on nature that improve drainage, agriculture and in turn recharge the water level as the aquifer.

For the industrial garden, an analysis of the original garden project (1930) was carried out and some paths adapted to current needs were recovered. Vegetation of native plants with low water yield and agricultural techniques (gravity irrigation, planting, mowing, etc) is used. A system of collection, conduction and infiltration into the ground is designed. The sustainable drainage systems used are based on nature (drainage ditches, infiltration wells, permeable paving and filtering drains). This space integrates the installation of Barcelona's emblematic ornamental fountains (Canaletas, Columna, Wallace and Capilla) and the reconstruction of Gaudí's Cascada (now with recycled water). Traditional materials (e.g. open-joint dry-laid paving) are used with innovative techniques. A space for biodiversity is integrated where flora and fauna cohabit: the 'butterfly garden' with the 'insect hotel'. These are made of natural materials to provide a space for hibernation and nesting. The garden is a mosaic of low vegetation that changes seasonally. These elements are educational tools to get closer to nature and it´s life cycle. The access to the site and the parking space is new, where the use of sustainability principles and a rainwater collection network is designed, so that it is a sustainable drainage system and faces a paradigm shift in water management. The water infiltrates into the subsoil and aquifer recharging water levels, as well as being useful for irrigation.