This project addresses archaeological sites as whole environments far beyond the excavated artifact. A series of fortified Galician settlements in Pontevedra are being redesigned for visitor access. The project proposes the reinstatement of the vegetation from Roman times when the ruins were inhabited. Cruciform posts are set on the same grid used for excavation, the archaeological method. The same posts provide audio tracks telling histories, give written information, and contain lighting. A series of paths leads the visitor through the landscape and between the poles from site to site. These layers of intervention – landscape, grid, and path – produce a rich context for archaeological contemplation.

Creating a simulacrum of the Galician-Roman landscape around the artifacts, the project immerses the visitor in another world. The jury was fascinated by the evocative drawings that clearly articulate the design intention. Instead of focusing on the ruins as objects separated from their context, the project re-embeds them within a whole environment. It creates complexity from simple, easily-achievable means.

More about the project: Bio-Palimpsest in Spain