PROJECTS
TEJIENDO LA VILLA
Renovation of the Main Street of Biel
CLIENT
Biel City Hall
YEAR
2021
LOCATION
Biel, Spain
AREA
2.350m²
TYPE
Renovation, urbanism
PUBLIC COMPETITION
Second Place
The main street of Biel is an opportunity to start weaving a new pavement, a tailored suit that expands through every corner of the town, dignifying it. We want to understand this land as one more façade of the town, as if it were born from the very walls of the houses, the church, the castle, and the materials were unfolded towards the street. This new pavement is based on the drawings created by the eaves of the roofs of the old houses, which cut the sky when walking through the streets and looking up. This is how the drawing of the sides breaks down and weaves the Calle Mayor. These sides of the street are bent always forming angles of 10 or 15 degrees to systematize the cut of the pieces that make them up. These, in addition, acquire a larger dimension, 30x60cm, making the stone masonry walls of the houses unfold towards the street. At the same time, it creates a transition with the pavement that marks the passage of vehicles, made up of smaller pieces: 10x60cm that alternate with others of 10x10cm.
Pieces of limestone with different shades and surface treatments (bush hammered, sawn, honed...) are combined to achieve a chromatic amalgam that is related to the houses of the Villa and thicker pieces are proposed in the vehicle passage area. This "fabric" creates a system that is repeated every 6 meters, points at which a "ribbon" fragments the street and serves in turn to collect rainwater in its central piece. In this way, this solution could be transferred to the rest of the streets of Biel in a simple way. The result is a tailor-made suit for Biel, drawn by the streets themselves and in dialogue with the materiality of the local buildings.
