Preliminary study for a Special Plan for the Preservation and Rehabilitation of the Historical City

Place: Santiago de Compostela
Date: 2013
Developer: Concello de Santiago
Design/direction: José María Ezquiaga & Miriam García García

The objective of this project is the preliminary study of the historical city of Santiago de Compostela. For this purpose a holistic, integral and articulated territorial analysis was achieved.

 

Santiago is a city settled within an undulated landscape of uneven topography. Its primary function since the XVth century is to be one of the most important centers of catholic peregrination. Point of arrival, end of the road, site of cultural, religious and commercial exchange, Santiago cannot be understood without its landscape and territorial structure shaped by peregrination.
The understanding of the historical city as an enclosed area survives until today and is reflected in its spatial organization. Nevertheless, the historical city is more of an alive organism that has its palpitating heart in the historical core but its articulations reach out to embrace the territory that provides the city its urban vitality and functionality. It is therefore of outmost importance to reclaim the city as an alive ecosystem.