Laws of water and Land in Molinar
Ciro Vidal Climent & Ivo Vidal Climent
Department of Architectural Projects, Universitat Politècnica de València
Abstract:
Architecture is an active part in the formation of the landscape. For the industrial origins of Alcoy, the town is inserted into the territory taking a visual value that is part of an evolving landscape, with a high degree of balance between man and nature. Rivers, roads, dams, ditches, walls, wheels and canals lead us to understand the territory as a cultural product made in time by a principle of cooperation reflecting both successes and inevitable mistakes. It is the result of how the human being intervenes in the space bequeathed to him introducing an artificial order which distinguishes it as an habitable place, where waterfalls, unstable hillsides and local materials are placed at his service to interpret the world, giving him back a spirit of completeness as civilization.
For Louis Kahn the investigation of the principles of a project should guarantee its character of permanence once the original function gets lost. Therefore, beyond the complex elaboration of form and function, the project should be sensitive to the most stable conditions that rule in a given place, ie, its natural laws. A project thus conveived can borrow the surrounding landscape during the splendor of its use, and in the twilight of his ruin, can be borrowed to the landscape. For this reason buildings must obey the laws of the place by using appropriate rules for both its organization and construction.
Keywords: natural law; architectural rule; ruins; perception.