PORTFOLIO

ESTEFANÍA COCH ESCUDERO

01Final Degree ProjectAgro-cultural Group Dvelopment in Sant Joan de Torán (Val d’Arán, Spain)Prof. J. Muntañola, E. Redondo, J. Franquesa, J. Maristany

NOVEMBER 2011

The Project is located in Sant Joan de Toran, northern Spanish Pyrenees. Since the very beginning the aim has been finding the de-signing criteria in the historical and social coherence itself, with the certain conviction that, only if we think about these two different issues at the same time in the very early stages of the project, then the project can work properly by itself in a very specific location and time.

InIn the case of the Agro-cultural system in Sant Joan de Toran, we find a historical mining, farming and pilgrimage tradition. Mor-phologically speaking, the Aran Valley is a system of East-to-West valleys hanging from a South-to-North central valley; the Toran Valley is among them. Traditionally it is in the central valley where the people and the technology are settled. That is why in the last decades the hanging East-to-West valleys have been almost forgotten and are nowadays uninhabited.

TheThe aim of the project is to find out which were the activities that made people settle there and how, with an actual vision, it is pos-sible to recover the ancestral structures to assure a future for the area.

LEGEND

ABANDONEED MINESPHOTOGRAPHY LOCATIONRIVERROMAN ROADHIDROELECTRICAL PLANTMINERYFARMING

After a research process, it has been discovered that the road across the Toran Valley has a Roman origin and was used by the French pilgrims to Santiago de Compostela. Inside the valley Sant Joan de Toran is a central piece in that road: here is located the only sanctuary of the area that was a long time ago part of a Templar settlement. That is why the first action is to recover that road as the central axis of the new activity, recovering the memory to be shown and understood. In that recovery process Sant Joan de Toran will be the valley’s emblem, the place where the new activity can look forward a sustainable future.

TheThe project will always come from a previous research of the existing structures and from the historical events study in order to find new activities based in the original ones. The first step will be the study of the remaining structures in the road to incorporate them in the project.

ACTUAL STATE: Well preserved. There are many refugies along the road and it is wellknown as a GR and very used.

ACTUAL STATE: Totally abandoned.

ACTUAL STATE: Still working and giving energy to the valley. There ae no workers as they are remote controlled.

ACTUAL STATE: Main activity nowadays. Aromatical herbs and feeding for animals are cul-tivated. It is the historical activity fo the valley

PATHOLOGY: The Roman origin of the road has been forgotten and it is not known until walk-ers arrive to the site.

PATHOLOGY: When the mine explotation was over, the valley became deserted and the old structures rested abandoned and are now in ruins. In the best case there is a sign explainig what they were 80 years ago.

PATHOLOGY: There is not a generational relief for the valley farmers. This will take to the de-sertion of the fields and the architectural structures.

PATHOLOGY: As workers are not needed anymore, the valley went massively deserted.

SOLUTION: Promoting the Roman memory trhough strategically located stone or metal pieces, reinforcing the idea of unity by the homogenity in the whole road but making the less possible actions in orden to keep the mountain character of the road and the existing activity.

SOLUTION: There is not a solution for this problem as it does not depend on the project. It could may be proposed to clean the access to the plants to make the knowledge about them easier. In some strategically located points there will be signs telling about their past and their pres-ent.

MOUNTAINEERINGTREKKINGMOUNTAIN BIKING

MINERY

HIDORELECTRICALPLANTS

FARMING

SOLUTION: Attracting young people who would be interested in the farm activity as well as assuring the generational relief by the abroad and the local young people. A farmer school will be planned and it will serve as lodging for the abroad famers. In that way a farmer form the Toran valley will have assured his relief and it coul be possible to increase the number of explotable fields.

SOLUTION: Integrating them in the recovery of the Roman road project , informing about them in strategically located points. Later, in another stage of the project, a recovery solution could be thought.

ROMAN ROADCHURCH SQUAREUNACCESSEABLE ROADUNDEVELOPED GREEN AREAFIELD LIMIT WALLSANIMAL BARNBARN

LEGEND

SECOND HOMEMAIN HOMERUINS 1. RECTORY 2. TOWERS 3. TEMPLAR STRUCTURE 4. CITY WALL

Sant Joan de Toran can be reached through a two-way road ending in the village. At first sight, the village seems as trapped in timelessness, as if time had stopped a hundred years ago: houses remain, some restored and some not, the only street crossing Sant Joan de Toran is not even as-phalted, the original stone remains with some grass grown between the joints.

Since the visitor leaves the car until he goes all over the road to the church, a lineal promenade is being done through the village’s historical memory: first we find the abandoned fields and their almost destroyed stonewalls, then the “bordas” (typical area house) with its vernacular materials which take us along the narrow street that ends, finally, in the church plaza, a strategic place and a meeting point from another time. It is a totally visual and landscape promenade, which discovers us Sant Joan de Joan de Toran’s essence.

Century’s hypothesis

Land division

Roman structure’s hypothesis

City wall’s hypothesis

Current state

WOODEN IPE PLATORM

PLATFORM DETAIL

Solid Ipe platform built over wooden stripes with inox screws. The wooden stripes are sepa-rated maximum fo 40cm and are built over heigh adjustable cylindric rings resting on the ground. These are fixed by a 30cm stone base well compacted wich will also drain water di-rectly to the natural ground as it is very permeable. The wooden stripe pores and the Ipe plat-form pores will have to be properly treated.

Wooden Ipe solid stripes varnished and with its pores properly treated.200cm x 2cm x 12cm

Wooden stripes with its pores properly treated.250cm (max) x 4cm x 5cm

Ipe wooden piece for the side ending with blob

Cramp iron

Inox screws

Heigh adjustable cylindrical rings wich can adapt tothe ground irregularities by an Allen key in the top part of the wooden stripe. They are directly on the ground and are stabilized by a stone base.

Stone base well compacted for water drain-ing to the ground. 30cm

Natural ground

The Roman roadThe Roman road boarding the city walls will be restored by its cleaning and by the introduction of wooden crossbeams directly in the ground. The intention is not to pave excessivelyas these roads are very used by trekkers and the natural ground is much more appropiated. In the rest of the road vertical crossbeams will show both distances, landmarks and some historical information as a unitary image.

The church plaza and the landmarksThe church plaza is considered as the Roman road recovery project’s emblem as being the most important spot at Sant Joan de Toran’s beginnings. Following the general idea of the project, the intention is not to be ex-cessivelly aggressive with the place as the current state is considered the main area’s attraction. That is why the chosen option is paving the plaza with concrete flagstones with wooden timbers directly in the ground. The pieces will be brought completely done, the ground will be dug and filled if necessary. The idea is taken from the Archidiocesan Museum in Olomuc (Czech Republic) from HSH ARCHITEKTI.

The wooden platform, the unitary elementThe wooden platform becomes not only the union element between the different spots of the project, but also the bond with the current existences. In that way both pavements remain visually together. The platform also chanes its direction according to its position: it will take one direction to mark the buildings’ entries, another one in the most private space reserved for leisure time and bonded to the guesthouse and to the green area, and another one between the second tower and the church plaza. With all this the intention is to put the accent on the idea of continuity between the current plaza space and the new public space built by the project and enclosing it as a citywall.

ROAD FLOOR

PLATFORM FLOOR

FLOOR 1 AND 3

FLOOR 2

ROOF FLOOR

The tower is located at the end of the promenade along the city walls, inaccessible today. The idea is the tower to be the emblematic building in the Toran’s Valley, as a watchable spot from almost everywhere.

The museum-tower has a very poetical structure in which the shape of the building is the one who will help us to understand. Every floor has a window in the North and South façade alternatively as a visual frame and in each floor the exposition is related to what the visitor can see trough those frames.

The activity recovery is understood as the reactivation of the existing structures

· ChimeneyCentral element (heating, reflection, meeting)

· Horizontal divisionTTwo stories (floor plant public / first floor privated)

· StairsClose to the entrance, focused to the living room. Visually not accessible (inside a wall box)

· WindowsVVery little occupation area (protection against cold). Very precise orientation.· Materials

Dry-stone walls, wooden roof with slates. Wooden inside divisions.

02URBAN PLANNINGSuatainable groth between Granollers and Sabadell (Barcelona)Prof. A. López

MAY 2010

Once the territory was studied, we observe a vertical structure where both the road network and the buildings are totally deter-mined by topography. That is why there exist vertical built elements combined with huge gaps related to the river spaces.

Two highways and many North-to-South common roads form the metropolitan road network. The only efficient horizontal communi-cation East-to-West is the road C-155 which communicates also every main village and the industrial areas.

NowadaysNowadays that road is used for merchandising transportation. That road is formed only by one lane per way, which makes very difficult the combination of mixed vehicular traffic of cars and trucks. The project focuses on the transformation of this road into a more urban space.

TheThe services will be located linearly and creating a tension between Granollers and Sabadell by locating in those points metropolitan scale services which will also create a direct boundary with Barce-lona. On the other hand, in those points where the road finds the North-to-South connections with the highway, more local services will be located. The idea is to bound constantly the activity to the road.

We are in very valuable landscape territory. It is essential for the project to understand and to promote those values. That is why every service located in the road will have to be completely related to the surrounding space logic. In the same way, the reconversion of some industrial areas will be necessary to promote the research of the natural resources and renewal energies. The activities taking place in that area will be, basically, sportive and related both to the farm world and to the valuable landscape, turning the natural space between Sabadell and

Granollers into a metropolitan reference.In that network we find the territory of Gallecs which becomes the main empty and protected space. That is why In that network we find the territory of Gallecs which becomes the main empty and protected space. That is why

it will be the place for the project to create a respectful and sustainable urban growth.

The block is the main element in the whole design project. The traffic is reduced to the minimum by an horizontal axis which gives continuity to the existing road structure. Other vertical roads in “cul-de-sac” shape allow the

access to all the buildings.

Those buildings are integrated in the territory logic; different volumes with different heights dispersing to the land gap. In that sense, the traffic roads, pedestrian roads and the buildings follow the little existing roads directions.The most important services will be located at the end of those blocks, in the green pedestrian axis which sews The most important services will be located at the end of those blocks, in the green pedestrian axis which sews

every block along the “natural gap”.

TOTAL AREA: 7’5ha

TOTAL OCUPATION; Number of housing: 780 Inhabitants per housing: 2’5 Total inhabitants: 1950 hab

WORK PLACES Total area: 16’8ha Area per work place: 20sqm Total Work places: 975

DENSITIES 104 housing per inhabitants 260 inhabitants per ha 130 work places per ha

03URBAN PLANNINGRoad in the area of “Els tres turons” (Barcelona)Prof. R. Fayos

JUNE 2007

04COMPETITIONART BOXES - Restoration of an industrial building in Paris (Competition ISOVER)

MARCH 2010

The competition suggests the restoration of an emblematic building in Paris in the Pantin area. The project consists on the creation of an atelier-museum-school of arts preserving the original reinforced concrete frames structure and creating new spaces by a “container” system. In that way every new space will be a unique activity container and will be properly adequate to its specific activity.

OneOne of the main ideas was the energetic efficiency of the whole building; this is why we focus on the thermic, acoustic and air renewal behavior both of each con-tainer and every common area.

The building is divided in two different parts, the first one will be dedicated to the museum and classrooms activities and the second one will be used for the ateliers and is organized around a central atrium-patio which provides every comfort ele-ment to the “activity containers”. It is a plug-in idea; every container will be “plugged” to that atrium-patio in order to take profit of the best hydrothermic con-ditions.

ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL

05COMPANY BUILDINGCompany building and all-purpose space in the Modelo prison (Barcelona)Prof. G. Gili

JUNE 2009

The project is located in the Left Eixample area surrounded by the streets Entença, Nicara-gua, Rosselló and Provença. It is the current location of the Model prison. It is a double-block inside the Eixample that also happens in the Industrial School, the Clinic Hospital or the Uni-versity of Barcelona. The project aim is a total occupation of the double-block in the roof floor keeping the traditional patios existing ratio in the Eixample. On the other hand, the idea of the characteristic chamfer remains implicitly thanks to the building’s setbacks in the corners. In that way different spaces are created depending on the needs of each position.

The lineal shape of the project is thought as the opposition to the existing Eixample even thought it is the departure idea. it would be an idea of NO-EIXAMPLE.

LATERAL SPACE

FRONTAL SPACE

NEUTRAL SPACE

06HOUSINGHousing in the Gardunya plaza (Barcelona)Prof. A. Ubach

JUNE 2007

The project is located in the middle of the old area of Barcelona, very close to the Ramblas, in the Gardunya plaza. It is just be-tween the back façade of the Boqueria market and the Massana school (an old hospital). The aim of the project is to give to that area, kind of abandoned nowadays, more character and vitality. It is a singular space inside the city but a parking area and the access of merchandising trucks have worst affected it. Through-out the project we want to improve that space quality, respecting if possible the proper area morphology.

Ciutat Cella is characteristic by its narrow streets, bounded by irregular blocks. Answering to that aspect, our project’s main idea is to integrate in that system by the creation of enclosed blocks. The narrow game is also very attractive as well as the small streets allowing the access to the plaza; the project will keep that tendency allowing in that way the “accidental discov-ery”. Nowadays that plaza is of the biggest in the area. That is why the “ams” conforming the blocks will seize part of the ground floor, always avoiding a too big proportion. Another important fact is the continuity ground-to-sky façade, which will collabo-rate in that delimitation aim.

Commercial locals and services will occupy the ground floor, as we are located in a very commercial area of Barcelona, given the existence of the market and the closeness to the touristic center. In that way and keeping in mind the idea of improving the visual division between the different close plazas, the streets will be kind of labyrinthic shaped. The plaza will become one of the most cozy corners hidden in the city.

07APPARTMENTS HOTELAppartments hotel with walls structure in the front beachProf. M. Llanos

JANUARY 2005

08STUDIO-HOUSEApainter’s Studio-home with wooden structureProf. A. Armesto and JJ. Ferrer Forés

JANUARY 2004

09STUDIO-HOUSEA writer’s house with concrete structureProf. A. Armesto and JJ. Ferrer Forés

JANUARY 2004

10ENVIRONMENTAL ARCHITECTURETHE CONSTANT BIO-RETURN - Idea for a sustainable urban plan in BarcelonaProf. J. de Botton

FEBRUARY 2010

The idea of the project is a complete sustainable situation in which the whole area is able to generate its own consump-tion energy trough out the self-management of its refuses.

The first stage is the recycling and the incineration of the re-fuses. Thanks to that, enough vapor is generated to supply a turbine that will generate the area’s energy.

The idea is to contaminate as less as possible both by re-fuses and by emissions. In that case, the amount of emis-sions will be reduced by gardens in the roof plants of every building and by seaweed treatments (in the case of the in-cineration plant).

Everything is based in a completely utopic case, as when the calculations were made, the amount of necessary re-fuses to supply just one area of Barcelona is the same as the whole refuses of one day generated by the whole Barce-lona. Nevertheless, that exercise was worth it as it made us conscious that with some research and creativity it is pos-sible to improve the environmental quality.

11MODELSCase Study #13, Richard Neutra (1946)Prof. A. Ubach

JUNE 2008

CURRICULUM VITAE