Project Terra. Miguel Martínez

Activity

The architect's desk 9

Library

General public, Professionals

24 November 2022

Miguel Martínez Perallón Terra Project. Plan for the recovery and enhancement of the Cultural Landscape of Camp d'Alacant.

The Comarca of L'Alacantí has become a paradigm of territories with valuable patrimonial and landscape resources threatened by an unstoppable urban development pressure and the abandonment of a large part of these assets. The Huerta of Alicante constituted for centuries a true system of systems through which Alicante achieved worldwide fame and prestige. In a context in which most heritage preservation policies and citizen participation for urban planning models have failed, the Terra Project emerges, promoted by the NGO Arquitectura Sin Fronteras and the College of Architects. Terra is an education program for global citizenship that brings together around thirty citizen associations and interested individuals, along with key institutions in resolving this serious conflict.

In recent days, Alicante media outlets are echoing the Wines of Alicante DOP campaign, in which a new image is adopted based on the creation of the "Junta d´Inhibició del Ví foraster d'Alacant", a privilege granted by Ferdinand the Catholic in 1510 in Valladolid. The campaign has been made possible thanks to the work carried out by researchers from the MARQ and the University of Alicante, and they demonstrate that this organism would constitute one of the oldest Designations of Origin in the world.

The results of this study, well celebrated by Alicante society, contrast sharply with the state of ruin in which the cultural landscape that gave rise to the production of those colossal wines is found.

In a semi-arid environment such as that of the comarca of L'Alacantí, the miracle of the ancient huerta was possible thanks to the creation of a network of hydraulic infrastructure formed by weirs, such as those of Sant Joan and Mutxamel, irrigation channels, lateral channels and secondary channels, along with the Tibi Dam, which came into operation in 1594 under the reign of Philip II, for centuries considered the largest dam in the known world. Most of these elements still exist today, although they present a very poor state of conservation in many cases. In addition to these patrimonial resources, the territory of the Ancient Huerta has a high concentration of Assets of Cultural Interest, 28 towers; currently 25 refuge towers and 3 watchtowers are preserved, and it is known that around 40 towers existed throughout the huerta. All of them are merely the tip of the iceberg of a patrimonial network of more than 200 assets, including houses and villas of the Huerta, religious architecture, wineries, mills, historic centers and traditional paths that constitute a unique ensemble of great beauty and incalculable value. Unfortunately, this valuable system is on the brink of extinction as a result of high urban development pressure and the abandonment of a large part of these assets.

Faced with this situation, the NGO Arquitectura Sin Fronteras España, ASFE, the Official College of Architects of the Valencian Community, COACV, together with the Territorial College of Architects of Alicante, CTAA, through the education program for global citizenship "TERRA, THE CULTURAL LANDSCAPE OF CAMP D'ALACANT. Structuring a sustainable comarca". The initiative brings together around thirty Alicante associations that work for the recovery of a narrative that gives new meaning to the territory of the Ancient Huerta, with the objective of promoting the recovery of this important patrimonial and landscape ensemble. Furthermore, the Terra Project has the support of the City Councils of Alicante, Mutxamel, Sant Joan d' Alicante, El Campello, Tibi, the Provincial Council of Alicante and the Marc.

Information

Opening hours: 7:00 PM
Duration: 90 minutes
Type of activity: Design and Architecture
Modality: At the museum

Related activities

Program to which it belongs

The architecture table

General public ... , 29.01.2015 - 17.12.2026

The Museum of Contemporary Art in Alicante whose collections are formed by works created fundamentally in the twentieth century. They range from the so-called avant-gardes to all the approaches and artistic manifestations that took place in the decades of the second half of the past century. They are expressed on different supports and materials, with diverse dimensions and techniques. In turn, the temporary exhibitions are related to these collections and allow for expanding or deepening some aspects of contemporary chronology. However, contemporary architecture is absent from both the permanent collections and those temporary manifestations.The architecture of the MACA itself, a project created and directed by the Sancho Madridejos Studio, is a beautiful building of great functional efficiency. The syncopated projection of horizontal and vertical spaces establishes a formal order based on the geometry and texture of the materials used in construction, while revealing a kind of tension resolved by the overhead passage of light, a kind of "felt" spirituality more emotional than real.The MACA proposes in a conversational format, meetings around art and architecture around the architect's table. In the MACA Library, the last Thursdays of each month, from January to May 2015.This first cycle will consist of different manifestations. The first and fundamental one will show works by an architect related through his vital and professional activity to the province of Alicante. The selection criterion will be conditioned by the modernity of the proposals, understanding that modernity, first of all, in a chronological sense, attending to those architectures and architects who were protagonists and participants in the advent of contemporaneity. The exhibition of some models will allow for offering three-dimensional models, reclaiming the model as such, as the authors of the Renaissance defended. And to illustrate the complete work process, sketches and preliminary drawings will be shown alongside the project plans and notes developed during the construction process. All of this with the ultimate aim of understanding and grasping in some way the constructed space.The architect's table, a table from 1912, real and present (deposited in the MACA by its owner Alfonso Navarro Guzmán), serves as an ideological foundation to link the exhibitions and will serve as the material support for the models so that we can traverse, while dreaming, the imagined space.

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