Architecture, Urbanism and Landscapes of Andalucia, Spain

WHY ANDALUCIA ?

 Andalucia

Andalucia has a very old and rich multilayered history which includes Middle Eastern and Muslim cultures, from the Phoenicians to the Arabic Califate. Islamic civilization lasted longer in Andalucía than anywhere else on the Iberian Peninsula and it’s from the medieval name for the Muslim areas of the peninsula, Al-Andalus, that the name Andalucía comes.

Around 1000 or 900 BC, Andalucía’s agricultural and mining wealth attracted Phoenician trading colonies to coastal sites such as Cádiz, Huelva and Málaga. In the 8th and 7th centuries BC Phoenician influence gave rise to the mysterious, legendarily wealthy Tartessos civilization, somewhere in western Andalucía. In Roman times (the 3rd century BC to 5th century AD) Andalucía, governed from Córdoba, was one of the most civilized and wealthiest areas of the Roman Empire. In 711, the Arab general Tariq ibn Ziyad, landed at Gibraltar with around 10, 000 men, mostly Berbers (indigenous North Africans) and Córdoba, until the 11th century, then Seville until the 13th and finally Granada until the 15th century, took turns as the leading city of Islamic Spain. At its peak, in the 10th century, Córdoba was the biggest and most dazzling and cultured city in Western Europe, famed for its ‘three cultures’ coexistence between Muslims, Jews and Christians. Columbus’ landing in the Americas in 1492 brought great wealth to Seville, and later Cádiz, the Andalucian ports through which Spain’s trade with the Americas was conducted.

By the late 19th century, rural Andalucía was a hotbed of anarchist unrest and Spain’s subsequent ‘hungry years’ were particularly hungry here in the south, and between 1950 and 1970 some 1.5 million Andalucians left to find work in the industrial cities of northern Spain and other European countries. But tourism and the almost everlasting building boom that has come with it, plus industrial growth and massive EU subsidies for agriculture (which still provides one Andalucian job in eight), have made a big difference since the 1960s. Education and health provision have steadily improved and the PSOE has given Andalucía Spain’s biggest network of environmentally protected areas (though only in the last couple of years has it begun to tackle the rampant overdevelopment of many coastal areas). The early 21st century has seen an important shift in Andalucía’s ethnic balance with the arrival not just of ever more northern European sun-seekers but also economic migrants, legal and illegal, from Latin America, Morocco, sub-Saharan Africa and Eastern Europe.

ARCHITECTURE, URBANISM AND LANDSCAPES OF ANDALUCIA

Historical Architecture

The Andalucian sytle is characterized by eclecticism based in its people’s great ability for absorption, transformation and synthesis, which it has gained from the passing waves of different civilizations. Diverse artistic currents, arriving from either West or East, have been transformed in the Andalucian crucible and acquired a particular character, in which the contrast between the exaltation of decorative forms and the structural simplicity is its principal characteristic.

There are numerous remains in cities such as Cádiz, in whose museum you can see the oldest known Phoenician sarcophagus in Europe, from the 3rd century BCE, or the Treasure of Carambolo from the lost city of Tartessos, about the 5th-3rd century BCE, that you can visit in the Aljarafe district of Seville, a gold artefact of particular richness, and an impressive example of gold working unknown in its era.

The Romans left great settlements which have survived into the modern day, such as Italica in Sevilla and Baelo Claudia, to highlight just two, and where you can see the typical architecture of the period, with great temples and well-defined streetplans, as well as  houses and imposing mosaics covering the floors of the mansions of the patriarchs.The Visigothic domination perpetuated, in minor key, the greatness of Roman art in the region. Notable from the 6th century are the remains of a church with a baptismal chapel in San Pedro de Alcántara (Málaga), of great archeological interest and related to other monuments in north Africa. One of the most important displays of gold craft from this era is the Treasure of Torredonjimeno. During the Muslim presence, Andalucia reached one of its most fortunate artistic moments, a moment that endures and resonates in popular architecture in Andalucia in the modern day. Cordoba was transformed into one of the cities richest in monuments during the 9th and 10th centuries, dominated by the Mezquita. If this is the master work from the Caliphal period, the Giralda of Seville is its partner from the Almohad era, and the Alhambra of Granada its equal from the Nasrid period. Away from these grand monuments, testimony to the past achievements of the Muslim architects can be seen in the mezquitas of Seville and Almería, the palaces of Medina-Azahara outside Cordoba, the alcazabas (forts) of Granada, Málaga and Almería, and the red walls of the historic and artistic centre of Niebla. Along with these, ivories, textiles, jewellery, ceramics and glassworks help us reconstruct the Islamic past of Andalucia. The conquest of Andalucia by the Castilians supposes a leap between the splendour of Arabic culture and until the Romanesque priod in this region, a time and place of repeated wars that precluded much secular and religious architecture. On the contrary, the Gothic had a great preponderance during the 14th and 15th centuries. One of the ways it combined the Mudéjar and other styles appears in its pristine purity, such as in the cathedral of Seville (1402), one of the greatest religious structures in Christianity, built over the foundations of an older Almohad mezquita and constructed by Norwegian masterbuilders, who made in it one of the greatest European buildings from the Spanish Gothic era.

Contemporary Architecture

The region also has some outstanding examples of contemporary architecture, including an Aga Khan Award Winning Museum. The tenth-century palace city of Madinat al-Zahra is widely considered to be one of the most significant early Islamic archaeological sites in the world, and the most extensive in Western Europe. Excavations at the site are still ongoing. The museum was conceived as a place to interpret the site and display the archaeological findings, as well as to serve as a training and research centre and the headquarters of the archaeological team. A refined and subtle design by the architectural firm Nieto Sobejano, the museum complex blends seamlessly into the site and the surrounding farmland – a series of rectangles composed of walls, patios and plantings which, taken together, seem more like a landscape than a building. The architects took the ground plans of three excavated buildings as a starting point, as though the museum had been waiting to be revealed from the ground. Visitors are guided through a sequence of covered spaces and voids. The main public functions are arranged in a cloister around a broad patio, a form found at the archaeological site and in the old town of Cordoba. Two more courtyards define the research centre and the external exhibition area respectively. A restricted pallet of materials and simple details, with walls of poured concrete, interior walls clad in iroko wood, and limestone paving for the courtyards, are intended to evoke the rough retaining walls and temporary structures of an archaeological site.

German architect Jurgen Mayer H constructed a ‘flying waffle’ in the middle of one of Seville’s most traditional shopping squares. Smarting with the audacity of a modern-day Eiffel Tower, the opinion-dividing Metropol Parasol , which opened in March 2011 in the Plaza de la Encarnación, claims to be the largest wooden building in the world. Its undulating honeycombed roof is held up by giant five mushroom-like pillars, earning it the local nickname Las Setas de la Encarnación .

Six years in the making, the construction covers a former dead zone in Seville’s central district once filled with an ugly car park. Roman ruins discovered during the building’s conception have been cleverly incorporated into the foundations at the Museo Antiquarium , while upstairs on level 2 you can (for a fee) stroll along a surreal panoramic walkway with killer city views. The Metropol also houses the plaza’s former market, a restaurant and a concert space. Though costly and controversial, Mayer’s daring creation has slotted into Seville’s ancient core with a weird kind of harmony, turning (and tilting) the heads of all who pass.

Seville’s ‘other’ futuristic new building may have been overshadowed by its precocious cousin, the Metropol Parasol, but its ultramodern museum and exhibition space which opened in January 2012, is equally thought-provoking. The architecturally impressive pavillion, which has revived a previous navigation museum that lasted from the 1992 Expo until 1999, resides on the banks of the Río Guadalquivir on the Isla de la Cartuja. Its permanent collection is split into four parts – navigation, mariners, shipboard life and historical views of Seville – and many exhibits are interactive and kid-friendly. As a bonus, your ticket allows you to ascend the adjacent Schindler Tower for some fine contemporary views.

Landscape and Urbanism

The multilayered histories of the cities of Cordoba, Cadiz, Sevilla and Granada, as well as their contemporary developments and expansions are of interest to architects and urban planners, and Andalucia is also noted for its National Parks and Nature Reserves, as well as for its Via Verdes, Greenways developed out of disused Railways. The Parque Nacional de Doñana is a place of haunting natural beauty and exotic horizons where flocks of flamingos tinge the evening skies pink, huge herds of deer and boar flit between the trees and the elusive Iberian lynx slinks ever closer to extinction. Here, in the largest roadless region in Western Europe, and Spain’s most celebrated national park, you can literally taste the scent of nature at her most raw and powerful.

The 542-sq-km national park extends 30km along or close to the Atlantic coast and up to 25km inland. Much of its perimeter is bordered by the separate Parque Natural de Doñana (Doñana Natural Park), under less strict protection, which forms a buffer for the national park. The two parques together provide a refuge for 419 bird species and 39 types of mammal, including endangered species such as the Iberian lynx and Spanish imperial eagle (eight breeding pairs). It’s also a crucial habitat for millions of migrating birds.

The Via Verde de la Sierra Norte de Sevilla takes the path of the old railway line that connected the junction of Los Prados with the mines of Cerro del Hierro (the hill of iron). By this route the mine was connected with the port of Seville, from whence the iron ore travelled by sea to blast furnaces far and wide. The 20km greenway passes through the National Park of La Sierra de Sevilla. It is a biosphere reserve that has Mediterranean Wood, it has holm oak, cork oak, Portuguese oak and riverside woods.

VISITS TO UNIVERSITIES AND ARCHITECTURAL FIRMS

The Field Trip coordinator will establish contacts with Universities in the Region to arrange a visit and exchange between students.It is also expected that there will be visits and contacts with architects and local firms who have designed and built the contemporary architectures, or worked on restoration and rehabilitation projects of historical buildings.

STUDENTS PARTICIPATION AND OUTPUTS

Students will be assigned an subject or theme to document and research and they will create a blog website for the Field Trip before travelling which will be used as a guide document throughout the trip and will be accessible through their mobiles. Students will be asked to produce a small video using Windows Live Movie Maker or other software, which can include video clips, photos, maps, plans etc.

The film and blog will be presented to the DAUP faculty and students and posted on the website and the blog. More details will be discussed in the next weeks, and students will select the sites and subjects for the film.