CICAC, INTERPRETATION CENTRE OF CASTRO A CIBDÁ, BORNEIRO

Territory - Sense of a Place

The oldest evidence of human occupation dates back to the Lower Paleolithic, about 300’000 years ago. Hundreds of thousands of years later new groups of shepherds colonized the higher inlands. Hundreds of dolmens and mounds bear witness to their life on the land. At the beginning of the first millennium B.C. the first castros appeared. These were fortified settlements, in a prominent location, and typical of this area until the Roman occupation. We know that these Iron Age settlers worked with copper, pottery and that they produced artistic jewelry.

Site - Infrastructure & Guidelines

The creation of an Interpretation Centre of the Castro A Cibdá presents the problem of the election of its location in a territory with a rural fragmented base, dispersed constructions and a great archaeological wealth. Its placement should either respond to the natural conditioning of the territory with the existing archaeological remains or to the future recreational use of the museum.

The traffic roads are the main regulatory guidelines for the territory. They respond efficiently to the rationality imposed by the motor vehicle and they solve the problem of accessibility.

Other main guideline is the river, in an immediate environment without physical presence of limits between the properties, only sensed by the variations on the sizes of the omnipresent eucalyptus plantations. It has to be respected. The abundance of abandoned water mills along its course is a clear witness of its historical and economical value of the past.

Museum - A Silent Public Space

The proposal will have an easy accessibility starting with the urban conditioning factors. It will seek out the silence of the stream with the existing picnic spot; it will respect the archaeological protection distance of Castro A Cibdá and its exterior image will be as little striking as possible, regarding to the scale of the existing mills. However, its interior will be exciting. The museum's form is inspired on its own program. The way of construction in the castreña's culture is the trigger of the idea.

On one side we have the importance of the walls. They are curved limits that cause intense relations between their inside and their outside. They divide the public and private uses and the interior and exterior comfort. They match structure and closing, form and image.

On the other side, is the idea of continuity. Both on the time, overlapping constructions without disturbing the terrain, and on the space avoiding futile corners in the architecture.

Space - Light & Concrete

The museum will have a specific program and nothing comparable to a castro. It will try to create an own interne atmosphere. The work will be made with concrete and light. In this project the sunlight filtered through the straw of a house is transformed into a skylight with multiple ventilation and electric light points.

The curved continuous walls are interrupted in order to be linked with other continuity. The exhibition space is basically defined by the association of two archetypal shapes: the cylinder and the cone. This construction mode is carried out in the castreña's architecture although the walls of the houses never intertwine to allow the water run-off. The space down the roof is a cone and the space defined by the walls is a cylinder. Their differences derive both from the need and from what happens inside.