by Isabel Duprat

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Montevideo was a delightful discovery that the Plaza de las Torres project at the WTC provided. Going to this city several times during the development of the project made me come to know an urban life rhythmically different from our São Paulo living style, with a glance more towards Spain and less towards the South American countries, a tragic melancholy permeated by its own habits and rites. It is a beautiful city gently sprawled on the banks of the River Plate, the river that looks like a sea, with an impeccable “rambla” accompanying the beachy banks. 

The location of the buildings on a corner formed by two important avenues of the Buceo neighborhood suggested to me the conception of a project that could offer a public square. Contained between the three buildings, acting as a focal point for the complex and at the same time opening to the city, the square extends into the surroundings through the sidewalks design and afforestation, besides two living spaces, identifying WTC within the city. Above all, I devised this square as a space of well-being and, therefore, a space of permanence. 

Two of the buildings that made up the complex at that time, projects from Kimelman Moraes office, were completed and occupied, with the third in execution. Thus, the design of the square on a slab coexisted with a structural limitation preventing working with higher loads, which strongly limited a greater presence of vegetation. In addition, to meet the needs of the enterprise, it would be necessary to allocate a large parking area.

We brought to the square the presence of nature through the beautiful light that floods this meridian, the reflections, the unstoppable sharp wind, the water with its movement and the inert stone. The vegetal element is structural and punctual. Nature is imposed by organic forms and equivalence. In my house, looking at a wallpaper by William Morris with countless leaves in continuous branches, I imagined its shapes at that square, sometimes with the yellow and green phormium, which would accompany the wind to and from, sometimes turning itself into water, covering up loose stones or setting on granite benches. 

At three points where it was possible to count on earth volume for trees, I drew three cubes where I planted three anacauitas (Schinus mole) and a timbó (Enterolobium contortisiliquum), native species, to provide some shade. 

The image of a picture I took of a bamboo grove lullabied by the movement of the air made me wonder what this structure of the culms reflected in the ground would be like, inspiring the design of the floor that stretched to the sidewalk, passing by the parking area, and thus giving the square a larger dimension. This diagonal design also gained the visible rooftops of the towers in the form of planting beds of different shades of green.  
Bringing art into the daily lives of users and further stimulating WTC's dialogue with the city, I thought of a large sculpture about five meters high that also acted as a landmark from street to the square. I suggested that a Uruguayan artist be called, and so Pablo Atchugarry provided us with a beautiful iron sculpture with reference to the boats and the proximity to the river. The idea of including a work of art in the project inspired the holding of a contest for young artists, which for some years exhibited the selected sculptures in the square.