• The proposal takes as its starting point the intrinsic nature of this place: the creation of a space for the preservation of memory in a natural environment chosen as a living place hundreds of years ago. As a natural museum, it recreates the memory of landscape through the maintenance, consolidation and recovery of the lost native vegetation.
• An abstract system composed of different layers is established with the intention of transferring ad hoc knowledge for each of the sites, integrating them into a unique network for the interpretation of the Galician archaeological landscape.

Madrid, 23rd January 2017. In Natura Veritas project, by the international design firm AGi architects, has been selected for the renovation and muesalization of 18 Galician-Roman sites in Pontevedra, Galicia, Spain. 26 proposals were submitted to the competition organized by the Spanish Ministry of Public Works and the Country Council of Pontevedra. Winners were announced in 2016. In the coming months AGi architects will carry out the development of the winning project. This development will serve to determine the accesses and routes, furniture and equipment for public use, signaling of the intervention areas and preventive protection of the sites, as well as for the creation of unique elements that allow the musealization of each “castro”.

“We are very proud of this project that integrates landscaping, renovation and musealization. We have approached it with all due respect to the natural and archaeological environment that surrounds it, in order to provide it with an own, sustainable, simple identity and, at the same time, that represents a unique experience to the visitor”, said Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea, Principal and co-founder of AGi architects.

According to the Jury’s decision, In Natura Veritas by AGi architects is a “respectful proposal with existing buildings and brings scenic and friendly quality to the visit to the castros through an integral vision of the context. The combination of the layers: sound, lighting, vegetation, paths and soils generates an integral experience of the space that will make the visit memorable without entering into competition with the archaeological elements. The proposed system of pikes is of great versatility constituting a very appropirate museographic support ".

In Natura Veritas

The proposal In Natura Veritas takes as its starting point the intrinsic nature of the proposed program: the creation of a space for the preservation of memory in a natural environment chosen as a living place hundreds of years ago. The proposal enhances the apprehension of the natural and archaeological landscape, bringing the observer closer to nature but also to that imagined and projected abstract world, through a non-formal intervention. As a natural museum, it recreates the memory of landscape through the maintenance, consolidation and recovery of the lost native vegetation.

In order to do this, a guiding proposal, an abstract system composed of different layers, is established with the intention of transferring ad hoc knowledge for each of the sites, integrating them into a unique network for the interpretation of the Galician archaeological landscape.

Pikes, Grids, and Quadrant

An orthogonal mesh based on the archaeological methodology of excavation by strata sectorizes and catalogs each area of the site and its immediate surroundings. At the vertices of the mesh, the generating museographic element appears: the Pike, which allows to narrate and illuminate the visitor's experience as well as to create an alternative visual landscape closer to the world of the uncertain, the unknown and the buried.

Vegetable Soil

The proposal analyzes the historical evolution of each “castro” and its surrounding landscape in order to recover the original state of the settlement. Slopes, excavations and plant species will be restored, according to the 'ways of doing' of the natural and geological native environment together with the building operability and the inherited local techniques.

Paths and Soils

Different paths across the sites are designed enhancing perception. Walking speed, floor textures, the sound of footsteps, the color and the scents of the surrounding vegetation... amplify the experience of the observer directing his steps through the archaeological site.

Light actions

This experience is completed with a lighting proposal organized in two levels. The first one is a horizontal plane of lightning displayed on the floor in the form of occasional photo-luminescent paintings. The second one is a dispersed constellation of spotlights integrated in certain pikes and displaying different intensities and colors.

Sound Actions

The pikes become witnesses that storytell the historical past. Sounds, music and information of interest will be heard at strategic points. Footsteps, the rustling of the soils, the murmur of the wind moving leaves, branches and shrubs, are the instruments that interpret the music of the natural environment.

Types of soil

Pavements will always consist of natural materials related to the territory, having different densities and hardness, colors and textures depending on where they are applied: wood and bark for the forest areas; aggregates, gravel and boulders for the archeological sites; ceramics and mixed soils for the pathways.

Plant species

A new vegetation intervention covers the landscape, helping to create a new reading of the environment that clarifies the different local landscape units: closed forest, open wild pastures, scrublands, vegetal and rock slopes.