La Gran Reserva residential estate is situated on the top of a hill in a favoured setting with wide ranging views of the sea and the mountains. The plots of land and the panoramic and access routes find their form and situation by optimizing their aspect to the sun, taking maximum advantage of the views, respecting the environment and endeavouring to preserve it.

The complex is crisscrossed by different routes for specific circulation roads for vehicles, paths for pedestrians, bicycle buggy lanes and a track of albero (ochre coloured crushed rock, as used in bullrings). The route followed by each one interconnects with the rest but with its own characteristics of width, gradient, turning circle and vegetation. Within these winding routes, which adapt to the topography, open green spaces are also interwoven all over the complex, offering a great variety of open air expanses.

Harmony and continuity with the environment is achieved through the careful combination of materials and proportions, conserving existing vegetation and using native plant species.

The landscaping project for the residential complex La Gran Reserva in Sotogrande has been devised to be coherent and in harmony with the nature that surrounds it. Harmony and continuity with the environment is achieved through the careful combination of materials and proportions, conserving existing vegetation and using native plant species.

Coherent with the potential of the existing landscape and the climatological determining factors, design criteria traditionally associated with Mediterranean gardens have been adopted. These guidelines have been strengthened with advanced measures in microclimate protection, due regard for ecology, conservation of natural resources, and rational use of water reserves and soil nutrients, rounding off with the corresponding technical advances.

Vegetation is a quality that characterizes the landscape in a most particular way, so existing species have been used and complemented in the landscaping project for the common land. All the chosen species are characterized by their suitability for the local climate. In the design, different strategies have been coordinated for the plants associated with the road layout, for the positioning of exceptional vegetation in relation to the open common areas, and for the distribution of mass vegetation, which in the common areas has been interrelated with that of the private gardens.

Sotogrande, Cádiz

498,700 m²

75 plots

2005