Refurbishment of Garcimuñoz Castle
The Refurbishment of Castimuñoz Medieval Castle has three main purposes:
To reinforce the existing structures, coming from different periods of History, avoiding their decay.
To transform the existing ruins in suitable and safe spaces for public visit and to contribute to their understanding.
To introduce new cultural and digital uses, proposed by the author of the project, that compensate the lack of cultural equipments within the area and that ensure a self sustained activity and maintenance of the building.
How can new, light and semi permanent architecture help understanding the complex mix of ruins and archeological remains that History has bequeathed to us?
Do a detailed development of the building elements and joins allow new architecture to be dismantled, reassembled, reconfigured or changed totally or partially in its location if future necessities of Heritage Buildings demand any of those options?
Can bioclimatic techniques help the preservation of Heritage by enabling new uses of old spaces without requiring big energy consumption?
Can a reduction on the comfort requirements in a mild weather provide new chances of use of open air spaces for cultural and public uses?
Do digital means provide new opportunities in terms of use and economic support for semi isolated cultural buildings not belonging to big museums and exhibition networks?
Methodology: Main landmarks in the research process for this building has been:
2002: Invited by Spanish Ministry of Public Works to a restricted competition to propose future use and architectural refurbishment of the Garcimuñoz Castle ruins. We analyzed the lack of public and cultural equipment in the area and the seasonal flows of visitors through national statistics.
2003-2005: Tight work with engineers to define a project that could be completely dismantled and reassembled elsewhere. Increase of the number of structural elements to reduce their weight. Research on the compatibility of micropiling with archeological remains. Research on bioclimatic techniques that could be implemented in the Castle. Research in this period was mainly base in design, calculation and analyze of existing buildings. In 2005 the execution project is presented and pre-approved.
2005-2008: Justification of legal requirements for public buildings. In 2006 the actual Technical Building Code became effective. During two years we had to proof to implied authorities how the design was accomplishing through alternative means all legal and safety conditions. Type of work was base in calculation (evacuation times, resistance of particular architectural elements).
2008-2010: Although contract with contractor is signed up at the end 2008 factual works in the site began on March 2010. In the meanwhile there was a tight work with the metal company FERROALUPAL producing first set of prototypes.
2010-2013: Site supervision works. Complexity of building and context demand mixed methodologies: building production, trial and error, manufacturing techniques, digital methods and plenty of prototyping.
