Silent Geology

This project was carried out in the archaeological site of the excavation of La Fornaca Park, in Vilassar de Dalt (Barcelona). The excavation contains the remains of three Roman industrial kilns for baking pottery from the Ist century BCE that preserve their original combustion chambers.

The local Town Council wanted to protect and preserve the remains along with the design of a museum program to be incorporated into the new structure of the park and the existing industrial facilities. The project aims to respond to all of these variables; first, by keeping the remains below ground, just as they have been for many centuries, allowing them to be contemplated and experienced through the use of natural light.

This was achieved through the use of a perforated roof that becomes the main façade visible from the park. The same criterion was established in the area below ground. The other “façade” of the building reveals a cut in the terrain, a geological stratum through which we access a place where we attempted to maintain the minimal spatial and temporal references in order to contemplate the remains in their essence, entering almost blindly, to enhance the perception of smells, temperature, silence.

Toni Gironés (Badalona, 1965) received his degree in architecture from the Escola d'Arquitectura del Vallès (Barcelona, 1992) where he later earned his doctorate. He founded his office in 1993. He has been a finalist and winner of awards such as the Spanish Architecture Biennial (2005), the European Biennial of Landscape Architecture (2006) and the FAD Awards (1998 and 2007).