Intervention in an industrial estate along the high-speed train line approaching the historic city of Toledo. The commission was a fence to hide it. Instead, we turned it into a beautiful sight for the passengers.
1. The site: approaching Toledo.
The European Landscape Convention, begins its Article no. 1 with a definition of "Landscape":
In this proposal we are dealing with a very specific way to perceive a particular landscape: the section of high speed train AVE track that runs along the industrial area of Santa Maria de Benquerencia in its approach to the world heritage city of Toledo. From the windows of the AVE you see a shooting landscape of industrial buildings and their back yards, currently offering poor vision of junk, carelessness and general dereliction, an inadequate anticipation to travellers approaching a rich and well preserved World Heritage Site.
We propose two catalogues of interventions whose common denominator is simplicity. It is a collection of targeted, light interventions, requiring minimal investment.
2. Productive Landscapes.
We do not wish to hide the industrial and economic activity of the Estate. As with the fields and orchards, whose beauty is in the care, precision and attention with which they are worked upon, also the industrial landscape can be beautiful, if treated with the same care, precision and attention.
Proper maintenance, anti-rust paint, careful storage of materials in the work yards, do not only built the beautiful scenery that we seek, but contribute to the economic activity itself, ensuring the durability of equipment, and the effectiveness of management.
3. Artists: Josef Shulz
We want to keep in mind the work of artists who have worked with the image of industrial landscapes, especially the graphic work by artist Josef Schulz, a reference for our interventions. We want to make sure that the reality will be as close as possible to the beauty of the images he created.
4. Two catalogues
Our proposals are collected in two catalogues:
• Catalogue of good practice
• Catalogue of interventions
Catalogue of good practice:
We have videotaped the route of the AVE and then we have analyzed it frame by frame, observing each and every corner.
Some points are close to that beauty which is our reference in the work of Josef Schulz. These points we have endorsed as Good Practice.
On the other hand, other points are far removed from that care, precision and attention we seek, and these have also been identified as Bad Practice.
Then, we proposed how to transform those examples of Bad Practice by applying the criteria of Good Practice.
Catalogue of interventions:
In the second catalogue we propose new interventions, not referenced to existing practices, aiming towards a unified perception of this landscape, emphasizing the higher moments of heroism, with particular attention to the elements related to sustainability, especially Renewable Energy and Water Treatment.
5. Interventions
Pink
All metal elements that are visible from the train shall be painted in a distinctive colour. We propose the fuchsia pink.
This intervention has three major strengths: It relates to the catalogue of best practice by requiring proper maintenance of these elements; it provides an identity to the industrial zone with targeted interventions and limited budget; it reinforces the strobe effect of the AVE, pulsating a succession of splashes of the same colour, which remains on the retina when passing at high speed.
Renewable Energy.
The new Renewable Energy collectors to be implanted shall have an iconic character. They will be placed ensuring its visibility and building a heroic image. As an example, we propose to replicate a photovoltaic solar panel swivel that already exists in the Estate, placing similar panels elsewhere. Naturally, the metallic elements will also respond to the intervention "pink", and the whole may well be subject to the intervention "spotlight"
Inflatables
All commercial signs will be inflatables. This ordinance would be equivalent to those governing signage in historic areas, but instead of forcing an older image (iron forging, scrolls) it requires a light image, mutable and contemporary.
Spotlight
Taking advantage of low-peak hours of consumption of renewable energy, which coincide with trains approaching in dusk and twilight, we propose a light intervention with spotlights, limited in time to the passage of AVE and controlled by presence sensors.
Thus, the iconic elements, especially those related to water purification and renewable energy production, become a visual reference to the passage of the first and last trains of the day.
6. Video
1. The site: approaching Toledo.
The European Landscape Convention, begins its Article no. 1 with a definition of "Landscape":
an area, as perceived by people, whose character is the result of the action and interaction of natural and/or human factors.The perception by people, the existence of someone who observes from a point, is also the key to the classic definition of landscape.
In this proposal we are dealing with a very specific way to perceive a particular landscape: the section of high speed train AVE track that runs along the industrial area of Santa Maria de Benquerencia in its approach to the world heritage city of Toledo. From the windows of the AVE you see a shooting landscape of industrial buildings and their back yards, currently offering poor vision of junk, carelessness and general dereliction, an inadequate anticipation to travellers approaching a rich and well preserved World Heritage Site.
We propose two catalogues of interventions whose common denominator is simplicity. It is a collection of targeted, light interventions, requiring minimal investment.
2. Productive Landscapes.
We do not wish to hide the industrial and economic activity of the Estate. As with the fields and orchards, whose beauty is in the care, precision and attention with which they are worked upon, also the industrial landscape can be beautiful, if treated with the same care, precision and attention.
Proper maintenance, anti-rust paint, careful storage of materials in the work yards, do not only built the beautiful scenery that we seek, but contribute to the economic activity itself, ensuring the durability of equipment, and the effectiveness of management.
3. Artists: Josef Shulz
We want to keep in mind the work of artists who have worked with the image of industrial landscapes, especially the graphic work by artist Josef Schulz, a reference for our interventions. We want to make sure that the reality will be as close as possible to the beauty of the images he created.
4. Two catalogues
Our proposals are collected in two catalogues:
• Catalogue of good practice
• Catalogue of interventions
Catalogue of good practice:
We have videotaped the route of the AVE and then we have analyzed it frame by frame, observing each and every corner.
Some points are close to that beauty which is our reference in the work of Josef Schulz. These points we have endorsed as Good Practice.
On the other hand, other points are far removed from that care, precision and attention we seek, and these have also been identified as Bad Practice.
Then, we proposed how to transform those examples of Bad Practice by applying the criteria of Good Practice.
Catalogue of interventions:
In the second catalogue we propose new interventions, not referenced to existing practices, aiming towards a unified perception of this landscape, emphasizing the higher moments of heroism, with particular attention to the elements related to sustainability, especially Renewable Energy and Water Treatment.
5. Interventions
Pink
All metal elements that are visible from the train shall be painted in a distinctive colour. We propose the fuchsia pink.
This intervention has three major strengths: It relates to the catalogue of best practice by requiring proper maintenance of these elements; it provides an identity to the industrial zone with targeted interventions and limited budget; it reinforces the strobe effect of the AVE, pulsating a succession of splashes of the same colour, which remains on the retina when passing at high speed.
Renewable Energy.
The new Renewable Energy collectors to be implanted shall have an iconic character. They will be placed ensuring its visibility and building a heroic image. As an example, we propose to replicate a photovoltaic solar panel swivel that already exists in the Estate, placing similar panels elsewhere. Naturally, the metallic elements will also respond to the intervention "pink", and the whole may well be subject to the intervention "spotlight"
Inflatables
All commercial signs will be inflatables. This ordinance would be equivalent to those governing signage in historic areas, but instead of forcing an older image (iron forging, scrolls) it requires a light image, mutable and contemporary.
Spotlight
Taking advantage of low-peak hours of consumption of renewable energy, which coincide with trains approaching in dusk and twilight, we propose a light intervention with spotlights, limited in time to the passage of AVE and controlled by presence sensors.
Thus, the iconic elements, especially those related to water purification and renewable energy production, become a visual reference to the passage of the first and last trains of the day.
6. Video
