(Final Degree Project)

The project is located in the town of Puertollano (Ciudad Real), which has the 7th largest population of Castilla la Mancha. The municipality is situated in the natural environment of the Sierra Morena in Ojailén River Valley, between two hills that form a natural gateway to the valley.

Due to intense industrial and mining activity developed in this valley for years, which has been the economic engine of the town, the environment is very assaulted: there are many outdoor mineral extractions and wounds that pierce the surface of the valley; also as a result of this activity, there is a “terry” (accumulation of debris from the mines); in the eastern part of the valley, a very large petroquimical complex dominates the landscape and limits the views. .. This is, therefore, a territory crushed, torn, gritty ... on which anyone is overcome and needs protection. In addition, there is a huge-scale landscape with a multitude of disparate elements.

The project aims to create a new landscape, where you can shelter from the “threating” territory and also, that becomes a structuring element of the landscape. This raises the creation of a park, which acts as a filter and sets up a shelter gradient. A new space for arts and entertainment, which requires a new environment.

One of the main objectives of both the previous study and the project, was giving value to the mining-industrial landscape of Puertollano, linked to the cultural heritage of the town, generating future actions which will to ensure that the surviving buildings will be preserved and remodeled. These historic buildings, along with the new ones, will conform a harmonic complex to be a clear demand for cultural tourism.

The environment where the emerging Arts center is located, is transformed by it. The site collects the latent flows, both natural and artificial, of the territory. These flows are captured in a park that connects the Arts Center with the town, creating a recreational space, very needed in the town.

The park is set as a filter, from which the torn territory can be tackled. The existing flows are materialized in bands of vegetation and different pavements, which manage the pedestrians, vehicles, cyclists ... to the heart of the artistic activity. Thus, it is created a new landscape, friendlier and with a more manageable scale, facilitating the approach to the industrial environment and thus, the recovery of this territory to the people.

Focusing on what has been built, we could say that the building leaves its mark on the ground. This footprint "breakage" the plot, which is modified by the space generated on it. A central square articulates the various parts and both interior and exterior spaces, generating different entrances and tours. A clear footprint on the pavement.

All of the volumes of the Center are in line with the topographic needs of the plot and try to respect and adapt to the maximum to the vegetation and the outer space proposed. So the forms of each building are the result of a long process of adaptation to the outside.

The volumes seem like bands, with different uses.  The idea that maintains in the bands is to get a space that flows with total ease, which is a continuation of the movement that the territory harbors in the outdoors. One of the fundamental constants of the new building project is to avoid to the maximum the compartmentalization of the spaces, and those who necessarily have to be closed, they do not do so hermetically. Mobile solutions are proposed, which allow more fluency and visual continuity.

But, the aim of the project is not only the generation of new spaces (such as the performance landscape of the park or the new Arts Center). The project is more ambitious, and has as its fundamental objective the restoration and conversion of the old industrial landscape. For this reason, several of the pre-existing buildings will be restorated, giving them a new use, entirely different from its primary, and sometimes providing also a new materiality:
- The thermal plant becomes the main exhibition space of the set. Its important height, its size and the absence of spatial compartmentalization makes it the ideal place to host all kinds of exhibitions. The whole proposal of the Arts Center leads to it, as it serves as the perfect link between the new and the obsolete industrial landscape of the mining area of Puertollano.
- The second most notable features of the conversion are the deposits. Both its important height as its form, give them a few suitable spaces for small representations or presentations, in total contact with nature and the landscape performance that happens in their immediate environment.