Comas-Pont arquitectes' proposal for the landscape staircase in la Vall del Paradís transforms and restores a lost connection, generating new perspectives of Montserrat and the city through the repetition of a single element: identical corrugated steel bars.
The structure is anchored to the stone by concrete walls, from which cantilevered metal trusses project, supporting the staircase with its unified design. This staircase is suspended from steel corrugations to create a balanced whole that establishes a dialogue between weight and lightness, between matter and air.
Landscape staircase in la Vall del Paradís by Comas-Pont arquitectes. Photograph by Adrià Goula.
Project description by Comas-Pont arquitectes
The intervention recovers a lost section of the Ignatian Way in Manresa, linking the Pont Vell and the Creu del Tort to the Pou de llum.
The staircase bridges the 13-meter difference in height between the lower terrace and the upper one, opening a new view of the city towards the Vall del Paradís, the Cardener and the Montserrat massif.
Separated from the rock, is presented as a permeable element, which allows you to see through it. A curtain of steel rods filters the landscape without interrupting it, generating a subtle tensión between the interior and the exterior, between protection and contemplation.
The entire project is articulated from a unitary material language: the steel. The repetition of a single element of 16mm diameter corrugated bar builds the entire staircase. This formal austerity responds to an ethic of measure: using only what is necessary, letting the material dialogue with light, with time and with human presence.
The combination of materials establishes a dialogue between weight and lightness, between matter and air. The pavement, also made of steel rods, is placed on the pre-existing ones, letting the ground breathe and allowing the natural drainage of water.
