Sara Prat Soto

My thesis project sought to enhance a disadvantaged area in the medieval town of Berga, close to the Pyrenees. The site chosen is located by the City Walls at the north of the town, just below the C14th Castell of Sant Ferran. It was a vast unocuppied area with privileged views onto the valley where the old city is situated.

 

The site itself was highly contrained by the eleven metres level difference between boundary lines and the protected C18th walls which had to be mainained. The aims of the project were:

- To recover the historic road from Barcelona to Toulusse and to extend the High Street along this road.

- To reclaim the historical value of the castle by integrating it into the main facade.

- To promote commerce by lowering rent prices, and to create new open spaces in order to expand the compact historic grain. 

- To create an outstanding public building which would invigorate the area and attract a new younger population.

 

The proportion of the standard C15th building was taken as a pattern to break up the massing of the area and to be more sympathetic to the surroundings. The mass was very sensitive to the existing landscape and folded following the slopes of the existing roofs which had a strong sense of identity of the place.

 

Secondly, the building splitted in two to adjust to the existing old walls and to create a hierarchy in the space. The building also involved the city walls in the spatial experience by generating a number of visual and tactile connections. 

 

Finally the public circulation was designed in order to match the slopes of the surrounding  streets making the experience of walking trhough the building part of the old town collection of scenes and senses. 

.​