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1998 PROJECT

The project for a peripheral area next to a highway junction in Cartagena, Spain, proposed a model of transformation for an industrial wasteland into a housing district. The project began from a process of redefinition and modification of the urban image. It adopted a method, which was employed by the people of the Adriatic islands centuries ago in order to create their living space in harmony with nature. The first stage of works concerns the 'urban' preparation of land. The cleaning of the site, involves the collection of stones, which are recycled in the building of stone dry-walls. In this phase, the inner road network is also created. Roads are lifted above the land by 3.0 meters, leaving the prepared soil protected from noise pollution. In the transitional stage, the prepared area is available for agricultural use such as olive-groves, vineyards, orange and fig-gardens as well as for cattle pastureland. In the final stage, single-family units are implemented upon the landscape. Housing units are lined along the newly built dry-walls, in form of a crescent. Inside the crescent, public space serves as a meeting point for the residents, while the private space of the unit overlooks the outer side (accessible only from the individual houses). The proposal conceived of the segregation of pedestrian paths from the automobile traffic, which is restrained to the upper level. The remaining parts along the highway are planned as agricultural space, with inserted sport facilities.

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