Meeting Point (concept for an intellectual debate)
Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain
1st Architecture, Art and Landscape Biennial
(E-IM) MIGRATIONS.
What we are hoping to do is basically to generate an intellectual debate and a project revolving around the generic concept of (human, cultural…) migrations in relation with landscapes and public spaces; to reflect on these concepts and to have an occasion to share and discuss the ideas that arise during an open forum held during the Biennial. José Antonio Sosa editorial coordinator and Curator of the 1st Architecture, Art and Landscape Bienal of the Canary Island
The initial starting point was the (e/im) Migration. The movements in all senses and directions to which the human species and its inseparable partner, culture have always been subject. This Laboratory emphasized the rejection of the persistent presence of frontiers in our contemporary world the commitment no longer to recognize “inside” and “outside” And to replace these with a new understanding of the planet as a continuous space, a space of flows or a space of movements without limit.
The chosen Landscape, on the outskirts of the island’s capital, Puerto del Rosario, is a ravine with well-defined edges. In its longitudinal course it is ordered as a variable sequence of different spaces. The arid interior plain, the ring road that cuts across it, cultivation lands in beautiful gavias (traditional strips of arable land) and on down to the strip of the sea, and sometimes, away over on the horizon, on bright clear days the unexpected coast of Africa.
My concept
Migration is a part of human life. People are always searching for places where they hope for a better life! However, the resources of a new home should not be sacrificed. This particularly applies to land and landscape. The people will continue to migrate. Places, however, remain and carry the traces, which people leave from the endless history of migration.
With regard to the destination we regard the migration as a big challenge not only for the newly arrived inhabitants but also for the existing infrastructure. Plenty of social, economic and political strength is required to take up people from other cultural regions with different backgrounds.
The special problems of the island of Fuerteventura are its spatial limitation and its economic situation, which is exclusively based on tourism. The majority of tourists – predominantly coming from the European mainland – heads for the island due to its beauty, the sea, the sparse population and the permanently friendly climate. Quite a few make Fuerteventura their adopted place of residence and are constantly living there.
In contrast to this, a lot of economic refugees reach the island over the water. The geographic proximity to Africa is approximately 100 km. The actual destination in this is Europe. Through Fuerteventura one hopes for entering into a better world.
With the tourists on the one hand and the African refugees on the other hand expectations are clashing, which could hardly be more different. Whereas for the one group, that safeguards the economic existence of the island, there is an infrastructure, one is helplessly confronted with the other group, which has nothing more than itself.
You cannot solve this situation only by means of architecture. This project does not want to exclusively deal with a certain group. It is important to make people aware of the existing problems. For this reason, a place is to be developed which is a meeting point for all people.
We are planning an area landscape around the existing plot of land. The quickly growing town Puerto del Rosario will develop around this garden. We not only integrate the Barranco de la Herradura as part of the found landscape, we create a lung for the town. This garden is to consist of the composition of cylindrical objects of various sizes. The cylinders have different functions depending on the size. In some of them the space which can be accessed has an own effect, others are developed as huge flowerpots and reservoirs. The flowerpots are combined to groups. Gardens of different nationalities settle down on the island. The tour round these gardens is called “garden way of the nations” In the transitional area, where there are two levels due to the depth, some cylinders are left hollow. During the day they bring light into the lower level. In the evening they give off light. The new areas are structured in such a way that the various functions are programmatically taken up in them. In this, we think of all groups on the island. With respect to the refugees who reach the island with their last ounce of strength, a spatial course is being developed which is stocked with equipment for the adequate supply of refugees. It includes the reception, a first aid station and the preparation for the distribution on the European mainland. We call such a course “immigration way”.
Some cylinders serve as exhibition rooms. In these you can find diverse information, which present the history of the island until the history of migration. Such a sequence of space builds the “historic way”.
Directly located at the sea one of these cylinders significantly protrudes. It is a lighthouse with a viewpoint. It will be a point of orientation for all those who reach this part of the island over the sea during the day or night. If you think of the odyssey of the boat refugees, this is a symbol of welcome. To be carried to Fuerteventura through wind and waves by chance is not an illegal act any more. It means being rescued and reaching the rich north.
Our concept is an attraction. The landscape offers the space to lead people from contrary situations in life together and is simultaneously defined by them.
If the African stream of refugees reduces after some years, other functions can be assigned to the spaces. Assuming that the West-African country Burkina Faso gets into the centre of interest due to a phenomenon that the people there stay young and healthy for 160 years and are happily having babies at an advanced age. This leads to the fact that more and more Europeans migrate to Africa through Fuerteventura.
(E-IM) MIGRATIONS.
What we are hoping to do is basically to generate an intellectual debate and a project revolving around the generic concept of (human, cultural…) migrations in relation with landscapes and public spaces; to reflect on these concepts and to have an occasion to share and discuss the ideas that arise during an open forum held during the Biennial. José Antonio Sosa editorial coordinator and Curator of the 1st Architecture, Art and Landscape Bienal of the Canary Island
The initial starting point was the (e/im) Migration. The movements in all senses and directions to which the human species and its inseparable partner, culture have always been subject. This Laboratory emphasized the rejection of the persistent presence of frontiers in our contemporary world the commitment no longer to recognize “inside” and “outside” And to replace these with a new understanding of the planet as a continuous space, a space of flows or a space of movements without limit.
The chosen Landscape, on the outskirts of the island’s capital, Puerto del Rosario, is a ravine with well-defined edges. In its longitudinal course it is ordered as a variable sequence of different spaces. The arid interior plain, the ring road that cuts across it, cultivation lands in beautiful gavias (traditional strips of arable land) and on down to the strip of the sea, and sometimes, away over on the horizon, on bright clear days the unexpected coast of Africa.
My concept
Migration is a part of human life. People are always searching for places where they hope for a better life! However, the resources of a new home should not be sacrificed. This particularly applies to land and landscape. The people will continue to migrate. Places, however, remain and carry the traces, which people leave from the endless history of migration.
With regard to the destination we regard the migration as a big challenge not only for the newly arrived inhabitants but also for the existing infrastructure. Plenty of social, economic and political strength is required to take up people from other cultural regions with different backgrounds.
The special problems of the island of Fuerteventura are its spatial limitation and its economic situation, which is exclusively based on tourism. The majority of tourists – predominantly coming from the European mainland – heads for the island due to its beauty, the sea, the sparse population and the permanently friendly climate. Quite a few make Fuerteventura their adopted place of residence and are constantly living there.
In contrast to this, a lot of economic refugees reach the island over the water. The geographic proximity to Africa is approximately 100 km. The actual destination in this is Europe. Through Fuerteventura one hopes for entering into a better world.
With the tourists on the one hand and the African refugees on the other hand expectations are clashing, which could hardly be more different. Whereas for the one group, that safeguards the economic existence of the island, there is an infrastructure, one is helplessly confronted with the other group, which has nothing more than itself.
You cannot solve this situation only by means of architecture. This project does not want to exclusively deal with a certain group. It is important to make people aware of the existing problems. For this reason, a place is to be developed which is a meeting point for all people.
We are planning an area landscape around the existing plot of land. The quickly growing town Puerto del Rosario will develop around this garden. We not only integrate the Barranco de la Herradura as part of the found landscape, we create a lung for the town. This garden is to consist of the composition of cylindrical objects of various sizes. The cylinders have different functions depending on the size. In some of them the space which can be accessed has an own effect, others are developed as huge flowerpots and reservoirs. The flowerpots are combined to groups. Gardens of different nationalities settle down on the island. The tour round these gardens is called “garden way of the nations” In the transitional area, where there are two levels due to the depth, some cylinders are left hollow. During the day they bring light into the lower level. In the evening they give off light. The new areas are structured in such a way that the various functions are programmatically taken up in them. In this, we think of all groups on the island. With respect to the refugees who reach the island with their last ounce of strength, a spatial course is being developed which is stocked with equipment for the adequate supply of refugees. It includes the reception, a first aid station and the preparation for the distribution on the European mainland. We call such a course “immigration way”.
Some cylinders serve as exhibition rooms. In these you can find diverse information, which present the history of the island until the history of migration. Such a sequence of space builds the “historic way”.
Directly located at the sea one of these cylinders significantly protrudes. It is a lighthouse with a viewpoint. It will be a point of orientation for all those who reach this part of the island over the sea during the day or night. If you think of the odyssey of the boat refugees, this is a symbol of welcome. To be carried to Fuerteventura through wind and waves by chance is not an illegal act any more. It means being rescued and reaching the rich north.
Our concept is an attraction. The landscape offers the space to lead people from contrary situations in life together and is simultaneously defined by them.
If the African stream of refugees reduces after some years, other functions can be assigned to the spaces. Assuming that the West-African country Burkina Faso gets into the centre of interest due to a phenomenon that the people there stay young and healthy for 160 years and are happily having babies at an advanced age. This leads to the fact that more and more Europeans migrate to Africa through Fuerteventura.