Setting the direction. Furelos Bridge by AGi Architects
29/06/2022.
[Melide] Spain
metalocus, CARLOS RUBIO
metalocus, CARLOS RUBIO
Description of project by AGi Architects
The medieval bridge of Furelos is one of the most outstanding works of civil architecture on the Pilgrims' Route to Santiago de Compostela. For this reason, the intervention carried out has been approached from an architectural perspective closely linked to the village of Melide and its landscape, to preserve an important heritage by careful restitution of the memory, applying the appropriate construction techniques.
The human body as a scale of measurement
The project takes into account the phenomenology of perception and the senses: it incorporates certain ways of seeing and feeling linked to the rhythms and relationships of architecture, the body, and the place. Thus, the threshold of the bridge is marked as a reception area for pilgrims; the cadence, rhythm, and frequency of the walker's passage; the demarcation of the keystones, pillars, abutments, and cuttings in the pavement by large stones that show the walker the silhouette of the bridge he is crossing; upstream and downstream observation points before and after, showing the future path that awaits beyond the transit over the bridge and the path that is left behind; the bridge as an element referring to the local experience and memory?
The preservation of memory and the Genius Loci
Among the characteristic aspects of the place is the constructive use of nearby natural resources. Metamorphic rocks are abundant (gneiss, amphibolites, dunites, and serpentinites), which are therefore what defines the traditional architecture of the area. There is no granitic geological substrate in Melide, it comes from the quarries of Pambre (Palas de Rei) and this is reserved exclusively for the supporting elements, such as jambs, lintels, corners, and thresholds.
In the case of the Furelos bridge, the granite ashlar masonry also appears in the original structural elements: abutments, pillars, spurs, cutwaters, and arches, and following the site report, the current granite parapets have been replaced by a large gneiss masonry covering the entire section of the parapet at its crown.
The threshold of the bridge is presented as the reception area for pilgrims. The low retaining wall of the hydrographic margin is extended to form a stone and steel bench that includes a description of the origin of the bridge for walkers.
The international design firm AGi architects was founded in 2006 by two young architects educated at Harvard University, Joaquín Pérez-Goicoechea and Nasser B. Abulhasan.
With a noticeable international character and a multidisciplinary focus, AGi architects offers a professional service emphasizing quality,creativity and exclusive design. AGi has a vision to create environments that create a lasting value for clients through distinctive and imaginative solutions. At present, the studio has offices in Kuwait and Madrid, with a team comprised of more than 50 professionals.
The studio's architecture is based on four founding pillars: innovation, an inherent life component, ecological and social interventions andresearch. AGi architects provide comprehensive services in architecture, urban planning and design, interior design, research, consultancy and complementary services.
Among the latest acknowledgements for AGi architects are a nomination for the EU Prize for Contemporary Architecture-Mies van der Rohe Award 2015, "Highly Commended" at WAF 2015, four WAF Awards (2014, 2013, 2011 and 2010 editions), ten Middle East Architect Awards(2015, 2014, 2013 & 2012), two mentions at MIPIM Architectural Review Future Projects Awards 2012, and various awards granted in the last editions of Cityscape Awards and International Property Awards, amongst other prizes.
Joaquín Pérez- Goicoechea and Nasser B. Abulhasan.