Adaptation and restoration of the site of THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LA CARTUJA · 2014. 5. 20. · Adaptation and restoration of the site of the Carthusian Monastery of Santa Maria de

Adaptation and restoration of the site of

the Carthusian Monastery of Santa Maria

de las Cuevas, Seville, 1987-1992

F. Torres

THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LA CARTUJA

The Pickman factory was set up in the monastery of Santa Maria delas Cuevas with modifications made for its accomodation both tobuildings and to La Cartuja's spatial planning, shaped according torules that pay special attention to the characteristics of edificatorylay-out, and determine precisely the shapes and relations amongstits different parts. A physical correlation can be made in theequilibrium between the solitary life of the Carthusian monk and hisinteraction in the community and between the composition and thedistributive organization of the different parts of the monastery.These, depending on their occupants' distinct ranks: monks, friars,servants and the prior himself, are located in groups of elaboratedand precise configuration, that seem to be isolated and juxtaposedwithout spatially linked solutions. Around them, the group oforchards, where pavillions, chapels and watchtowers rise up,providing possible recreation for the community and also pushingthe outer limits of the site into the distance, thus forming a complex

microworld.

With the installation of the factory, the monastery's spatial organizationwas altered. The rivergate became the main access and a newpathway connected the access with the atrium of the church and theprior's cell, now used as the propiertor's houses. The outbuildingswere closed and the orchards became private gardens. Ovens andchimneys rose next to cupolas and belfries, and the factory went oninserting itself between cells and cloisters, transforming andsubstituting gradually many of them, joining new ways and processesof production, extending throughout the site up to invading a good

part of the orchards.

Transactions on the Built Environment vol 4, © 1993 WIT Press, www.witpress.com, ISSN 1743-3509

598 Structural Repair and Maintenance of Historical Buildings

Once the factory was moved and the site cleared of sheds and poor-quality building, its aspect was that of a complex where theresidential scheme -cells and production - work spaces- had, to acertain extent, disappeared, leaving only testimonial remains: archesand bell towers, ovens and chimneys.The constructions provide the installation of new use, which partlyneeds building of new floors or interventions in the existing parts.Restoration and rehabilitation of the outlying parts -gardens andorchards- has been approached considering recovery and value of itsmost important parts. Enough elements of the old and big orchardsremained to permit an approximate recuperation of the Cartujaspace: repair of the wall, regeneration of the hydraulic system,waterwheels, cisterns and culverts, restoration of the woodlands andnew plantings, and an intervention in the pavillions, chapels andwatchtowers that searched for a clarification of their function in theCarthusian orchard, retaining the valuable profile Pickman hadgiven them. Although no traces of old olive orchard remain, its siteserves as a new space, where gardens, patios and walkways organizethe interconnections between the new spaces on the site.

THE REHABILITATION OF THE ORCHARDS

The Big Orchard

The criterions of acting in the Big Orchard have been very approximateto those of restoration. Enough remainders of plantings and analysisof existing documents have permitted de recomposition of itsstructure and landscape. The main reference was the descriptionwritten by Demetrio de los Rios in 1867. With certain precision thestate of the orchard at that moment is described, a few years after theoccupation of the monastery by the Pickman Company. The drawingtechnique used is the bird's eye view indicating the shadowsprotected by each tree. This enables a profound hypothesis aboutthe composition and structure of the above mentioned plantings,supported, of course, by the information provided by the rest of thedocuments and historical iconographies. Based on this, the genericcriterion of acting in the big orchard has been the replanting oflemon trees of different varieties, adjusting the dimension of theplantings to the size of the already existing kinds, completing it withrows of cypresses that border the periferal walkway at its northernand western limits, as well as the central pathway. Wherever inDemetrio de los Rios' plans various forms of planting are appreciated,near the eastern limit, grapevines, almonds andfruit trees are located,


Structural Repair and Maintenance of Historical Buildings 599

Figure 1. The Big Orchard -ovens, chimney, cupolas- from the reservoir and Santa Ana chapel.

as well as isolated groups of other trees around the waterwheels:figtrees, laurels, etc. All of them traditional trees because of theirappearence -and specific location- near waterwheels and reservoirsin the traditional 'mudejar' orchards.

From the reservoirs and chapel of Santa Ana leave the main lines ofwater distribution of the orchard, as well as the road that crosses itfrom north to south, connecting the big and old orchards and linkingthe chapel with the well and the watchtower of the Postigo. Thereare quite a few indications about the chapel's role as mystical centreof the orchard, from where water and life irradiated. And althoughthe profile that Pickman imposed, making it part of the collection ofsmall pavilions structurising the orchard as a romantic garden, hasbeen respected, the possible mudejar shape has been given back tothe basic structure, reservoir, road and perimetrical irrigation

ditches.

Waterwheels and Watertower

Of the group formed by the two waterwheels and the tower thatPickman used as a water-reservoir, the one we call NorthernWaterwheelis the oldest. Probably from before it was included in thesite after fencing in the big orchard, and a work of popular art,without formal aspects, just the local tradition.



The supposed execution of rehabilitation follows the design of thepresent-day wall, although intervening strongly in foundations andconsolidation of this wall. As a crowning a factory parapet isproposed which includes a bench to make it possible to use the roof-terrace as a watchtower. The infrastructure of the reservoir andsewers, being part of the last moments of the waterwheel, has beenrestored and upon that a pavement of pebbles has been constructedas a path for the animals, and unpaved for the rest.

Figure 2. Waterwheels, watertower and Santa Justa chapel

The activities in the Southern Waterwheel are further away from theplanning exposed before, as this is not a construction solved only bythe use of means and techniques of a popular tradition, as done nowand then for a well like the northern one, however it will have toinclude a strong intention in its original definition, using designs andresources that remind us of the best construction traditions of the 18th century.Unfortunately, the first waterwheel that was built suffered from acollapse, which supposed the abandon of the work. Now we can seea subsequent arrangement, of lower invoice, that should pretend tosave at least its usefulness, and of which we believe never to havegiven a solution for subjects like the access to the terrace which stillseem unclear.



The proposal has been expounded to explicite real and possibleimages of the waterwheel, without pretending to give a finalsynthetic solution. Therefore the big crests have been replaced intheir angles of which we knew their existance -images of one ofthem have been conserved, which have permitted its reconstruction-and removed the fractured areas of the soil slopes that covered

them once their factory was set up. The waterwheel, once repaired,offers at the same time the profile it could have had and, betweenthe signs of its collapse, the remainders of the modules that theprimitive plan consisted of.

Figure 3. Santa Ana chapel from the roof-terrace of the Southern Waterwheel

Between the two waterwheels, and situated over the pipings leaningto the wall that joined them, a high passage that connects them hasbeen constructed, opening the access to the roof of the southernwaterwheel, of which we didn't have any knowledge. To climb upthe northern one, a ramp has been constructed of similar context,and in the same place, as the ramp that was discovered during theexcavations.

What we call Watertower was used by Pickman as a water reservoirand linked to the hydraulic circuit of the waterwheels. This use hasbeen removed and the tower has been put back to its adjoining



assignment over the wall of the fence, strengthening foundations,solving its formal integration with the slopes and facades of the wall,and replacing plaster.

Drying-room of molds

The nave called Drying-room of molds is, among those that belongedto the factory, the one that received most interest as the exponent ofa specific kind of industrial construction. The execution has beenquite trivial, and consists on one hand of the restoration of theconstruction above, permitting to understand its speciality and itscontext; on the other hand to create a possible use linked to themaintenance of the monumental group. It includes two kinds ofinterventions, one that consists basically of the opening of holes inthe paraments of the central bay and to make its use possible; andanother that wants to find a solution for those formal and structuralaspects that are not solved well in modern construction, like thepositioning of stairs and the dimensioning and structurising ofelements of the shelter, rafters and tie beams.

The Old Orchard

A major part of the Old Orchard bore the extension of the factorybeyond the limits of the cloister and the buildings were adapted tothe use of the Pickman family, the primitive mudejar chapel of SantaJusta and Rufina as a romantic pavilion and watchtower over theorchards, and the group of the Postigo as a summer residence.

With the rehabilitation the brickroad that leads from the chapel tothe Postigo was opened and the groups of Santa Justa and the Postigoitself were restored.

We know the past of the Santa Justa chapel as a domestic chapel ofa leprous Carthusian, its subsequent consolidation as mudejarchapel, and its definite transformation into pavilion-watchtower bythe Pickman family. We don't know anything about its primitiveshape. We slightly know the aspect of the mudejar chapel, througha drawing of the Cartuja made by Richard Ford, shortly after thedisentail. There aren't any plans or detailed drawings left of Pickman'swork, and the image of the chapel only appears in illustrations madeof the factory group for commercial printing.

From all this, and the reserarch and articles done by archaeologistsand historians, it was concluded that the mudejar chapel possibly



had the same wall-box as the actual one, and with a similar height,although, also possibly, with only one interior space In Ford'sdrawing the tower does not appear.

Pickman's transformation would imply the construction of the toweras a watchtower sticking out in height, the division of the interiorspace in two floors, using the highest one as a watchtower and thelowest one as a pavilion-snackroom, and, of course, the conversionof the mudejar image into another oriental taste.

Figure 4. Santa Justa chapel in the Old Orchard.

The idea of rehabilitation supposed the reconstruction of thecomplete profile of the chapel in its last state, erecting its walls andthe tower again, and constructing the shelters, according to theillustrations we know from the Pickman era. The once restoredelements that formed part of the ornamental structure of the complexhave been reintegrated, suggesting only its basic lines where theyhad disappeared. The solution of the interior space supposes asynthesis between the mudejar conformation and Pickman's. Thisway the use of the top floor of the chapel as a watchtower, with theintermediate plan construction, is strengthened, but an opening hasbeen made in its centre, to make it possible to perceive the whole

interior space.

Among the criterions of intervention in the Postigo-watchtower



construction predominate those of repair and reintegration, acceptingits multiformal characteristics.

The structure of the old watchtower and the roof of the waterwheel'swell have been cleaned and clarified, including both of the superposedarcades as well as a minimal opening from the exterior to permit itsview.

The reservoir has been cleaned of pavement and additional covering,recuperating the primitive finish, with bricks and plaster, as well asthe reservoir and sewer system, which permits reintegration in theold orchards' irrigation system.

The new watchtower has been given back its original lay-out, inwhich the groundfloor only functions as a stand and access to theupperfloor, opened again through the lodge, -freed from the coveringsthat blinded it- to the river and the city. Above this room, open towatch the city, a new covering framework has been constructed forwhich a trough is proposed, constructed with the traditional techniqueof the workshop carpenters, however with simplicity of details andresources. The upper room recuperates this way the lay-out that itshould have without any doubt.

Finally, the reservoir's garden is restored using criterions respectingthe existing lay-out. A peculiar fact, that, between box hedges andacanthus plantings exists a small collection of trees that are verysignificant for the Mediterranean culture: the palmtree, the wildolivetree, the figtree, the opuntia, etc., and the good state of thespecies, have orientated such a decision.

The criterions of acting in this construction have therefore been theapproximation to a definite lay-out, where none of the significantparts that in whatever moment formed part of the whole have beenignored, and the reintegration of materials and small elements, thathave contributed to define a specific atmosphere in this corner of LaCartuja.


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Adaptation and restoration of the site of THE TRANSFORMATIONS OF LA CARTUJA · 2014. 5. 20. · Adaptation and restoration of the site of the Carthusian Monastery of Santa Maria de