luis castillo / mercedes miras

This simple yet emphatic intervention is intended to show the strength of an ageless construction, made by anonymous builders with simple materials, as well as to emphasize the provisional, light, degradable nature of the contemporary.

The main aim of the project was to make the tower accessible, and encompassed the repair and restoration of the original building. The criteria followed were to preserve as much as possible of the original materials, removing modern elements and resurfacing the original. New additions are made as removable objects, placed directly onto the ground without foundations and made with contrasting materials with the ones the original structure was built. Instead of reconstructing, the project emphasizes the new additions and states the lost pieces.

The project tries to reuse the existing topography to minimize ground alteration, so the parking area is set at an existing plateau. A monolithic cor-ten steel box is placed to house the information office. Like a shipping container, it is intended to show its removable, traveling nature.

To restore the original entry to the tower this access, a new weathering steel staircase is built. It is conceived as a light, removable object with a contrasting nature with the existing building. In opposition to the solid, quadrangular materiality of the tower, the staircase is a rounded, rusty, temporary structure.

  • Vista frontal
  • Torre Huercal Overa
  • Llegada a la Torre
  • Escalera
  • Escalera exterior
  • Paisaje
  • Escalera interior
  • Interior Torre Huércal Overa

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