m2ft+s-nstudio+Arigato Estudio
Salt dunes spreading into the square: a new public that’s made with the most ubiquitous element of the coast of San Fernando, its ancient open-air salt mines.
Salt has been an invaluable resource throughout San Fernando’s history and economy. It’s transformed the edges of the town into a place where sea water can be processed and transformed into a new material, that’s then raked and conveyored to slowly accumulate into the dunes that are now part of the collective memory of San Fernando.
The salt mining process is developed through the tides and solar cycles, so in this relationship between nature and humans, our only participation is the oscillations of these ever-changing dunes, slowly carving the landscape.
SAL! wants to explore further the possibilities of the material and our relationship with it. By turning it into a constructive system, the sheer volume needed to keep the pavilion on the ground transforms the square; the simple frame it supports, acts as a shaded event area in a protected space.
Because the dunes wouldn’t need any adhesive to keep them together, the untampered salt is available for industrial repurposing after the life cycle of the pavilion.
Authors: m2ft+s-nstudio+Arigato Estudio.
Website: m2ft-architects.com + arigatoestudioarq.com
Location: Cádiz, Spain.
Year: 2024
Competition: Festival TAC!