The Clearing in the Forest

View from the air.

Words from the architect

The coal-fired power station in Alcudia, Mallorca, is one of the most important examples of industrial architecture of the Balearic Islands. It was built in 1958 according to a design by the brilliant Spanish architect Ramon Vazquez Molezun. The building has a powerful presence, constructed of reinforced concrete with an elaborate facade accented by large, prefabricated lattice-like panels.

Today the power station and its surroundings are abandoned, though its two tall chimneys continue to rise above the bay and have become a common reference to the landscape of the island.

The clearing in the forest.

The Mallorca Territorial Plan declares the complex as a Zone of Territorial Restructuring, and establishes a series of guidelines that focus at first on the conservation of the main building and secondly on the integration of the entire complex in the surrounding environment.

The competition program asks for the intervention of the main building as well as the surrounding environment in such a way that requires the work to be done in two scales: architecture and landscape. With this in mind, our project works with this double scale, combining the past and the future, converting the power station and its surroundings into a territorial hub for the entire Northern part of the island, and promoting at the same time the historic and artistic value of the building and, above all, its familiar silhouette at the bay.

Location.

The slogan used for the proposal - "The Clearing in the Forest" - refers to a text of the same name by Maria Zambrano, and in the text the poet from Malaga writes:

"(...) El claro en el bosque es un centro en el que no siempre es posible entrar. Es otro reino que un alma habita y guarda. Algun pajaro avisa y llama a ir hasta donde vaya marcando su voz. Y se la obedece. Luego no se encuentra nada, nada que no sea un lugar intacto que parece haberse abierto en ese solo instante y que nunca mas se dara asi".*

Relation with the Port of Alcudia.

Like what happens at Tikal in Guatemala or at any of the ancient Mayan ruins, our proposal implements a surprise: the discovery that comes with the idea of "the clearing in the forest" and, once there, it gives the visitor the possibility of experiencing the sensations that come with contemplating the past. In the middle of the frantic world that surrounds us, this place offers the visitor a space to stop and think.

Tank (for multipurpose use) in the forest.

To achieve this, the project includes the reworking of the topography and landscaping to return the area to its original appearance in which the buildings of the complex, taken over by vegetation, are no longer isolated elements; rather they become part of the topography. By way of different paths, the visitor will discover the ancient elements partially hidden among the trees, and eventually, following the path that crosses the tall chimneys, arrives to the clearing. Once there, stripped of the tangle of metallic elements that are now present, the ancient power station stands with all its aesthetic potential as a magnificent industrial building.

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