Final Degree Project "CROSS-LANDSCAPES. Generation of Productive Spaces in the Marshes of Ayamonte".

CROSS-LANDSCAPES Generation of Productive Spaces in the Marshes of Ayamonte

Ana M Valverde Cabello de los Cobos Final Degree Project 2017-2018 Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Sevilla

Professors: María González Jose María Morillo Enrique Larive María José Agudo Enrique Vázquez Íñigo Ariza Javier García Antonio Morales

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The raw material: salty water.

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“Nihil enim utilius sale et sole�.

There is nothing more useful than salt and sun.

Isidoro de Sevilla.

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Where?

“This landscape is composed by men’s processes, its heritage and the territory that contains it. These processes could be called sustainable and pre-industrials, since the man enhances Nature’s conditions for its exploitation. In order to keep the value of this cultural landscape it is urgent to foster social profits. Future alternatives require a viable system that optimizes and promotes the importance of the marsh landscape and its social identity as well as it stimulation for citizens to participate in the creation and preservation of this network made of cultural itineraries.”

Nowadays, a large part of the areas that were used to obtain water resources are abandoned or deteriorated. The excess of salt in some areas makes impossible the development of the ecosystem.

In addition, urban pressure and real estate speculation, together with the change from hand production to mechanization, have transformed the territory. Now there are new aquaculture activities, which along with fishing, monopolize the economic activity of the region, except in summer periods when turism takes over.

Location

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Fluctuating landscape

Productive landscape

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Topography

Biodiversity

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Site

Types of production

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What?

Operations for the protection, rehabilitation, management and reactivation of the ecosystem do not stop the deterioration and disappearance of this territory and its biodiversity.

The enhancement and intelligent management of the territorial network is a viable alternative for its recovery. As a solution, interrelations should be created between exploitations and their immediate surroundings (urban areas, roads, river courses‌).

This is an economic proposal, in which tourism, culture, leisure, productive and commercial activities all converge. It is characterized by the following factors: -Use of renewable energies for the perfomance of the project.

-Production and commercialization of ecological local products.

-Extensive production of fish, crustaceans or molluscs.

-Sustainable economically independent system adapted to the environment.

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A space is proposed where various activities can be developed to demonstrate their capability of TRANSVERSALITY. TRANSVERSALITY:

ving

- interdisciplinary, cross-disciplinary.

- drawing from or characterized by participation of two or more fields of study.

- enriches a process in a way that connects and articulates the knowledge of other sectors.

- phenomenon by which the same subject can be an embroidery for several materials that cross, achiea better and more complete use of the theme.

SYMBIOSIS BETWEEN TRANSVERSAL EXPLOITATIONS A space is created for the cultivation of autochthonous halophytic plants. These multifunctional plants have many properties, as well as biotechnological and pharmacological applications. Furthermore, their biological characteristics allow them to live in highly stressful inhospitable environments while maintaining their production. Some of them are used for food consumption, obtaining fibers, construction materials and other industrail elements.

INTERRELATIONS In the intervention, the changing process of appropriation of the territory’s resources is imitated, creating a natural intrusion to include the visitor, optimizing natural resources and thus maintaining the landscape.

We can get feedback between the vegetable crops in the upper level and the fish in the lower level through the aquaponics, which consists of a system of sustainable production of plants and fish that combines traditional aquaculture with hydroponics (growing plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. sustainability

crops agriculture water

turism

fishing

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Symbiosis: Aquaponics

Present raw materials

Productive activities

TYPE A

TYPE B

TYPE C

Salts and Artemia salina

High Tide Plants

Low Tide Plants

Produced materials

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Who? In the area, depending on the time of year, there is usually a greater transit of tourists who spend the summer on the coast, local people who work in the territory or who walk through the natural park. As users, both workers and leisure, local agents are linked to visitors or tourists, generating economic benefits for the biosphere of the area.

A complementary diversification of uses, which can also be innovative and sustainable is the goal: -Obtaining brines (other products derived from salt) for cosmetics and food.

-Aquaculture, food production for wildlife.

-Public use of the saline for sport fishing or other recreational uses.

-Water sports and educational uses.

-Ecotourism (rural tourism in salt houses).

-Bird observatory.

-Research: experimental reserves for medical purposes.

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When?

Since it is a project that is expected to develop and grow progressively over time, the structure must be designed for this operation. Therefore, all the pieces are prefabricated and assembled in the factory, and the complete structure or the pieces that compose it are assembled in situ. This way, an adaptable morphology is created according to the needs.

The proposed design is one of the many possible options within the development phases, but it is estimated that it is close to the maximum expansion phase that could occur.

The phases would be the following: PHASE 1: Restoration of the marsh: cleaning of the bottom of the ponds, opening to the pipes with gates and recirculation of the water with the natural rhythms of the tides.

PHASE 2: Agricultural infrastructure: start of cultivation. Start of the use with a small part of its surface.

PHASE 3: Users already know the place and its use grows, so the infrastructure expands and occupies the biggest surface possible in order to reach maximum activity.

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Present situation

Phase 1

Phase 2

Phase 3

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How much?

Crops can vary with the seasons, so does their use. Halophyte plants are mostly perennial bushes, but with the passing of the seasons the flowering takes place, and when the colder season arrives, they turn brown or reddish, depending on the species.

The layout of the productive platforms can be built in two different ways.

If it will be used for the harvesting of the salt (only in the summer), elongated cultivation platforms will facilitate the harvest.

However, if it is used for marsh plants’ crops, the containers or cultivation areas will be homogeneous and rectangular, so planting and harvesting is easily doable.

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Atmosphere in spring/summer

Atmosphere in autumm/winter

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How? To achieve a flexible and adaptable project that will grow over time, the structure is made of prefabricated pieces assembled on site. The search for lightness is due to the intention of respecting the existing ecosystem without invading or modifying the existing territories.

The goal is to provide a space that rekindles the abandoned ecosystem, in a temporary, modifiable, permeable way, that can increase or decrease its size. In short, capable of adapting to the environment and to the use. Resistant materials are chosen to endure despite the aggressiveness of a saline environment exposed to wind, humidity and sun. In addition, the fact that the structure is elevated from the ground level avoids the damage caused by water fluctuations.

The structural grid starts from the creation of an orthogonal mesh, following the traces of the current territory. Thus, the mesh design is inscribed in a 20m x 20m grid.

Assembly ease is achieved by modulating and manufacturing the parts in the most standardized way possible: 1) Piece A-linear building; 2) Piece B-crop platform; 3) Habitable module part.

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Morfological strategy

Tides flows TYPE C - Low tide halophyte plants

TYPE B - high tide halophyte plants

Concept

Strategy translated into structure Elevated path - Public/service building

Elevated platforms - Crops for salt and plants

Climatic conditions and circulation flows

Landscape grid and circulation flows

Visitants flows

Producers flows

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Complete structure

Complete structure

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Structure- Piece A: path

Structure- Piece A: path

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Structure- Piece B: platform

Structure- Piece B: platform

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Upstairs Floor Plan

Upstairs Floor Plan

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Symbiotic system

The module

The standardized habitable module, 50 square meters (5x10m), is designed to host any type of use. The provided uses may be accessible for the public whereas others will have restricted entry for the users of productive areas. The modules with uses directly related to agricultural production, will be placed on the west side of the building, in order to have direct connection with the platforms. On the other hand, those for public use and less linked to the crops will be located on the east side. This way a variable flow is created , making the path through the project alive.

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The module

Bioclimatic strategies

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Interior view

Interior view

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View towards exterior

Bibliography

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-Consejería de Medio Ambiente, Junta de Andalucía: Salinas de Andalucía.

-Emilia Román López: Paisajes de la sal en Andalucía, Tesis doctoral.

-Francisco J del Corral del Campo: Las formas del agua y la arquitectura de Carlo Scarpa, Tesis doctoral.

-Fondo europeo agrícola de desarrollo rural : Valores ambientales del lugar de importancia comunitaria (LIC) y zona de especial protección para las aves (ZEPA).

-José Manuel Murillo Carpio: Características salinas de diversas áreas de la marisma del Guadalquivir y su relación con las comunidades vegetales que las pueblan.

-Junta de Andalucía: Ventana del visitante de los espacios naturales, Paraje natural marismas de Isla Cristina.

-Junta de Andalucía Consejería de Agricultura y Pesca, Empresa Pública Desarrollo Agrario y Pesquero,S.A: Zonas idóneas para el desarrollo de la acuicultura marina en la provincia de Huelva.

-Junta de Andalucía: Informe de acuicultura marina de Andalucía 2015.

-Junta de Andalucía: Plan de conservación de especies en dunas, arenales y acantilados costeros.

-Perez-Hurtado Alejandro, Juan J. Muñoz-Pérez: Puesta en valor de una salina abandonada. Los Maestros de la Sal. -Rosalía Bejarano Palma: Vegetación y paisaje en la costa atlántica de Andalucía.