Casa De Campo, Madrid’s Playing Field
Playing Fields: Design Thesis
Location: Casa de Campo, Madrid, Spain
Program: Visitor Centre, Park, Hiking Retreat
Type: Masters Thesis Project
Level: Master of Science in Architecture, TU Delft
Supervisor: Dr.ir. R. (Roberto) Cavallo
Joran Kuijper
Cities are never still, so architecture shouldn’t be static. In Casa de Campo, time and temporality become tools for play and exploration. Structures act as portals or follies in the landscape—acupuncture points that spark curiosity, invite events, and guide people toward unexpected encounters with nature, history, and each other.This project asks: How can architecture mediate between the ephemeral and the permanent? How can it shape evolving patterns of human and ecological life?The design proposes a scattered network of interventions that turn constraints into opportunities. Hidden surfaces, forgotten histories, and overlooked spaces become triggers for discovery, transforming the park into a living playground for experience and connection.This project deepened my understanding of landscape as a living, temporal system. It taught me to read subtle site cues—cracks, informal paths, vegetation—as layers of meaning and opportunity. Designing for transformation rather than completion reshaped how I think about permanence in architecture. Casa de Campo became an exploration of rhythm and temporality, with architecture and its actors participating in the landscape’s ongoing evolution.
Urban Proposal
My design approach treated Casa de Campo as a large field of connected elements. Through mapping, I identified acupuncture sites for their views, accessibility, ecological value, or historical artefacts that could serve as activators. The project orchestrated a dispersed network of small elements: shaded rest stops, ‘miradoro’, floating bridges, and revalorised paths. Together, these scattered interventions work as an urban strategy to stitch the park with the city, attract more diverse use, and balance the rhythms of public life with the slower cycles of ecological regeneration. All the while, creating moments of surprise and adventure. In this way, the design operates at both the scale of the detail and the territory. 
Puerta del Ángel
Puerta del Ángel became the key design site because it sits at a critical threshold between the city and Casa de Campo, yet it is underused, disconnected, and dominated by a vast asphalt expanse. Its combination of accessibility, historical layers, and potential for ecological and social activation made it an ideal site to test interventions. By focusing here, I could explore how a single overlooked edge can be transformed to reconnect people with the park, experiment with small-scale interventions, and develop strategies that could inform broader urban and landscape patterns.
Design Process
23-year analysis of Puerta de Ángel, mapping festivals, circuses, concerts, expos, and funfairs from aerial imagery. While events temporarily activate the site, they often overwhelm the neighbourhood, and for most of the year, the asphalted field remains dormant. The design weaves permanent landscape interventions with event-ready areas, keeping the site lively and integrated throughout the year
Diagrams and sketches were used to imagine Puerta de Ángel as a site in constant evolution—shaped by seasonal events, everyday use, and human interaction. Cracks, informal paths, vegetation, and subtle topography become tools to choreograph movement and guide experience. The site is treated as a living system, where activity and interventions interact over time, creating a hybrid landscape between city and park.Explorations are structured through four themes: design acts (how movement is guided), surface ecology (how materials and vegetation support dynamic use), surface morphology (topography and subtle shifts in elevation), and surface tectonics (material layering and construction mediating human scale). Together, these studies informed the detailed, adaptive design of Puerta de Ángel.
The site is envisioned as always in flux, where dirt, rubble, and infrastructure coexist with active areas. Rounded platforms, subtle elevation shifts, and varied surfaces guide movement, encourage pause and play, and invite social interaction. Bridges and raised platforms connect levels, while patches of vegetation—both wild and curated—soften edges and introduce seasonal texture. A partially excavated glass visitor centre anchors the site, creating a hybrid environment where city, park, and human activity shape the evolving landscape.
The site is envisioned as always in flux, where dirt, rubble, and infrastructure coexist with active areas. Rounded platforms, subtle elevation shifts, and varied surfaces guide movement, encourage pause and play, and invite social interaction. Bridges and raised platforms connect levels, while patches of vegetation—both wild and curated—soften edges and introduce seasonal texture. A partially excavated glass visitor centre anchors the site, creating a hybrid environment where city, park, and human activity shape the evolving landscape.
The site is envisioned as always in flux, where dirt, rubble, and infrastructure coexist with active areas. Rounded platforms, subtle elevation shifts, and varied surfaces guide movement, encourage pause and play, and invite social interaction. Bridges and raised platforms connect levels, while patches of vegetation—both wild and curated—soften edges and introduce seasonal texture. A partially excavated glass visitor centre anchors the site, creating a hybrid environment where city, park, and human activity shape the evolving landscape.
The site is envisioned as always in flux, where dirt, rubble, and infrastructure coexist with active areas. Rounded platforms, subtle elevation shifts, and varied surfaces guide movement, encourage pause and play, and invite social interaction. Bridges and raised platforms connect levels, while patches of vegetation—both wild and curated—soften edges and introduce seasonal texture. A partially excavated glass visitor centre anchors the site, creating a hybrid environment where city, park, and human activity shape the evolving landscape.
The site is envisioned as always in flux, where dirt, rubble, and infrastructure coexist with active areas. Rounded platforms, subtle elevation shifts, and varied surfaces guide movement, encourage pause and play, and invite social interaction. Bridges and raised platforms connect levels, while patches of vegetation—both wild and curated—soften edges and introduce seasonal texture. A partially excavated glass visitor centre anchors the site, creating a hybrid environment where city, park, and human activity shape the evolving landscape.
The site is envisioned as always in flux, where dirt, rubble, and infrastructure coexist with active areas. Rounded platforms, subtle elevation shifts, and varied surfaces guide movement, encourage pause and play, and invite social interaction. Bridges and raised platforms connect levels, while patches of vegetation—both wild and curated—soften edges and introduce seasonal texture. A partially excavated glass visitor centre anchors the site, creating a hybrid environment where city, park, and human activity shape the evolving landscape.
The site is envisioned as always in flux, where dirt, rubble, and infrastructure coexist with active areas. Rounded platforms, subtle elevation shifts, and varied surfaces guide movement, encourage pause and play, and invite social interaction. Bridges and raised platforms connect levels, while patches of vegetation—both wild and curated—soften edges and introduce seasonal texture. A partially excavated glass visitor centre anchors the site, creating a hybrid environment where city, park, and human activity shape the evolving landscape.
Phase 1: Initiation Asphalt is gradually removed, slabs laid, and earth reshaped. Visitors continue to explore, gather, and play—the park begins its transformation without pausing human activity.
Phase 2: Building & Regeneration The building facade is completed, providing protected, multi-functional space for exhibitions and artefact storage. The surrounding landscape regenerates, evolving alongside ongoing activity.
Phase 3: Symbiosis Architecture, ecology, and human use coexist. Trails, interventions, and natural growth interact seamlessly, creating playful, surprising, and adaptive experiences across the site.
Master Plan
Roof and Landscape Plan
First
Ground
Technical Detailing
