Architecture, geometric, and landscape. Interpretation Center, a shelter-shaped museum by Carlos Pita
21/06/2023.
[Lugo] Spain
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
metalocus, JOSÉ JUAN BARBA
A Coruña based architecture practice, Carlos Pita Arquitectos, was commissioned to create a refuge for pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago as it passed through Lugo, which will also serve as a museum where it will display information about the history of the Castro de Castromaior, located to the east of the building. As a shelter, it will be open at all times and will not need more maintenance than that which the residents of the town can provide.
With a tight budget, the bases of the project are to work in harmony with the landscape, so that its shape is hidden in the landscape without neglecting the provision of the building as a viewpoint of the Castro, a site of the Iron Age, that was occupied until the occupation of the peninsula by the Romans, at which time it was abandoned.
With a tight budget, the bases of the project are to work in harmony with the landscape, so that its shape is hidden in the landscape without neglecting the provision of the building as a viewpoint of the Castro, a site of the Iron Age, that was occupied until the occupation of the peninsula by the Romans, at which time it was abandoned.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Drone doing.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Drone doing.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Drone doing.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Drone doing.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Drone doing.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Drone doing.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Site floor plan. Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita.
Floor plan. Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita.
Elevation Plan. Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita.
Section. Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita.
Section. Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita.
Section. Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita.
Section. Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita.
Axonometric. Interpretation Centerby Carlos Pita.
Axonometric. Interpretation Centerby Carlos Pita.
Before construction. Interpretation Centerby Carlos Pita.
The Castromaior interaction center, designed by Carlos Pita, is a building with an orthogonal geometry full of wisdom and based on the diagonals of a square in plan. The only plant that makes it up is below ground level, so a three-step staircase appears at one of its four entrances. In the center of the building is the showroom where two panels on the walls and a bronze model of the Castro will be exhibited.
With the idea of enveloping the building in the dynamics of the path, all its spaces are traversed, including the roof, which is accessed by an external staircase at the rear of the building.
The work of integrating the building into the landscape was given thanks to the fact that the project is semi-buried and the nakedness and honesty of the materials that constitute it. A plant type was included on the roof that provides visual continuity between the surrounding soil and the building. The walls are made of exposed concrete that distances the building from the romantic idealizations given to nature, providing it with a clear and direct identity.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
With the idea of enveloping the building in the dynamics of the path, all its spaces are traversed, including the roof, which is accessed by an external staircase at the rear of the building.
The work of integrating the building into the landscape was given thanks to the fact that the project is semi-buried and the nakedness and honesty of the materials that constitute it. A plant type was included on the roof that provides visual continuity between the surrounding soil and the building. The walls are made of exposed concrete that distances the building from the romantic idealizations given to nature, providing it with a clear and direct identity.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Project description by Carlos Pita
“…a joyous work goes against all expectations, it is an absolute disobedience.”
Boccaccio and me. Pier Paolo Pasolini.
“ … its stone walls teach geometry to the air and to the entire valley”
Galician trips. Alvaro Cunqueiro.
The Camino de Santiago crosses the Castro de Castromaior (1) on its way to Compostela. At its feet, in a bend in the Camino, the INTERPRETATION CENTER is proposed as a door and invitation to discover, investigate and visit the Castro, while it emerges as a stop on the road, as a rest for the pilgrim, as a place, as a protected atrium from the sun and the rain from which to observe what has been walked and still to be walked. A piece immersed in the timelessness of the landscape itself where it is located. Opening up to him. Diving into it.
Construction without a birth certificate or author, rooted to the ground like the wise popular architecture of the region. The walls that build it, and the vegetable covers are already an integral part of the place. Since the Castro is hardly seen, it dissipates its presence in the forest. He seeks anonymity, to be a discreet presence of powerful and rigorous geometry.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
Interpretation Center by Carlos Pita. Photograph by Juan Rodríguez.
High on road
Always open, visitable, and habitable at all times without the need for permanent staff, since this is an unaffordable burden for the budget of a small town hall like Portomarín.
A low-cost public facility (€200,000.) and almost no maintenance. Which, like the small Galician rural churches, is cared for by the residents of Castromaior themselves.
As it is always open, it allows the free refuge of the pilgrim, who can spend the night, cool off in its fountain or make a fire in its "lareira".
Exhibitive content
At the same time that it acts as a “cruzeiro”, as a lighthouse that points out the Camino and Castro himself, it is its entrance hall, since this is an open-air museum. The center, pending musealism, will exhibit a bronze model of the fort, and 4 screen-printed aluminum panels on the walls of the Central Chamber, which will explain the evolution and history of the fort, as well as the geography that surrounds it. QR codes, printed on the panels, will allow them to be read and understood in all the languages that make up the Camino de Santiago.
Construction
We work on an architecture that implies, as a value, the honesty and ethics of the material. Of great carnality, the very consequence of the construction process. That is stripped of everything to stay in the essential, transcending the construction and function itself.
No aftertaste, oblivious to all fetishism. The material is a constituent of the place, geometry, and gravity give it shape. Concrete architecture is far from inspiration, self-expression, or romantic idealizations of nature. aware of working in a privileged natural and archaeological space, which we must protect and respect.
A stop on the Camino a Compostela that becomes a landscape.
(1) Iron Age site of great importance in the Northwest of the peninsula (V-IV BC / I AD). The occupation continues until the first contact with the Roman world when it is abandoned.
More information
Architects
Collaborators
Jose Carlos Iglesias., Xosé Manuel Pérez, Monica Balado.
Client
Location
Aldea de Castromaior , Concello de Portomarín. Lugo province. Spain.
Budget
200.000€ PEM.
Photography
Carlos Pita Abad
Carlos A. Pita Abad.- Architect born in A Coruña in 1964. Licensed by the ETSA of A Coruña. In 1995 he opened a studio in A Coruña where he exercises the practice of architecture, developing this in different directions: teaching, studio, editorial work and dissemination.
Professor of the Department of Architectural Constructions of the ETSA of A Coruña since 1997, he has been guest professor and taught courses in several European and Latin American universities. Collaborator in different publications and editorial projects, he has been co-director of the architecture magazine Obradoiro.
Professor of the Department of Architectural Constructions of the ETSA of A Coruña since 1997, he has been guest professor and taught courses in several European and Latin American universities. Collaborator in different publications and editorial projects, he has been co-director of the architecture magazine Obradoiro.
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