Giudecca Arquitectos

Rehabilitación Depósito de Aguas

Avd. San Isisdoro del Campo. Santiponce, Sevilla. 2010

Promoters: City Council of Santiponce
Architects: Giudecca Arquitectos

The rehabilitation of the old water tank in Santiponce is a dual project, on the one hand working on the void left by an old block of demolished houses and on the other hand working with an object that has a strong presence in the town: the old water tank. The first challenge assumed by the project is to respond to the limits of the intervention area; the Avenida de Extremadura, which acts as a crossing, absorbing most of the road traffic, and the accesses from the north and south to the municipality; the construction of the Maltería and the climb to the San Isidoro del Campo Monastery, which do not currently present a suitable environment to support the flow of visitors it requires, and the construction of the old tank, which is now cornered, forgetting its great potential as a point of height for the topographical knowledge of the urban settlement. Therefore the project addresses the recovery of an urban fragment, with an enormous potential, at that time underutilized. A semi-excavated square is planned that aims to bring together all the public activity in the area, a depressed space that is isolated from the immediate surroundings of the crossing and is configured as a place to stay, marked by the different itineraries that visitors and inhabitants take. A carving in the ground that serves as a catalyst for activities and a meeting point and stay of the pedestrian route. At its lowest level there is room for a system of modular pieces that will absorb a series of itinerant activities. The perimeter configuration of the void itself generates the living areas and the urban furniture. Throughout the action area, road traffic has been eliminated, thus promoting the pedestrian over the car, ensuring its viability in two ways: maintaining road access for residents and designing a surface car park for visitors and inhabitants in the area on the border of the building with the future Vía de la Plata Park. The old Santiponce Water Deposit is an architectural object with an indisputable presence in the town. It is one of the first buildings in the peninsula made with the technique of prefabricated concrete. Its proportions and location, place it in a privileged position for the elaboration of a program of support to the tourist activity that has Santiponce. The intervention in the deposit focuses on two factors. Firstly what is meant by climbing the Tower and secondly how are the limits of it. We think that the experience of climbing up to a space at height should be slowed down, so we propose two climbs, one directly by means of a lift, which solves the problems of accessibility, and another through a staircase that articulates and gives meaning to the project. The pedestrian ascent to the tower is proposed as an itinerary that goes beyond the very functionality of the ascent and introduces the visitor to a route that enters and leaves the old depot, a route that transcends the object and integrates space and landscape into the experience of the visitor. This route between the interior and exterior of the tank is supported by a second skin that reinforces the structure, supports the staircase and transforms the external appearance of the old building. A Corten steel structure, with a square floor plan and slightly displaced with regard to the centre of the tank, formed by girders and slats, also metallic, A piece that leaves an interstitial space between the exterior and the tank, where the rise is housed and which proposes a space marked by the capacity for transformation. A place crossed by the wooden staircase that, like a ribbon passer-by, situates the individual in that space. A filter of dark, fixed slats that, with their horizontal position, modify the experience of climbing the Tower according to the time of day and the year, making the climb an unrepeatable moment each time.

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