Landscape Adaptation and Intervention at the Almadraba of Nueva Umbría

On the other hand, the rehabilitation of the boiler, chimney, tarring area, and drainer has been based on philological criteria, thanks to their state of conservation allowing the deduction of the constructive techniques and finishes they had presented in the past. Access to the boiler piece is from the channeled pavement of the dock that culminates in it; from this point, it is possible to understand the entire process of protecting fishing gear. The boiler, consisting of two furnaces and the chimney, is accessed via a staircase whose central area features a cushioning that allowed the ascent of tar barrels, which melted and passed to the tarring area where fishing arts were hung from a clothesline located between two pillars that descended towards the two melted tar wells with a pulley and were protected by pitch. Finally, the nets went to the drainer shed, where they were left to dry, and the excess melted tar was recovered through the channeled floor, now emulated on the dock. The rehabilitation has been carried out with ceramic pieces found on-site and with lime mortars and silicate paint that favor the breathability of the factories and give the complex an appearance that refers to its original state, where the white volumes, whose refined geometry stemmed from their strictly functional use, stood out in the landscape.

The third intervention in the realm of the Real de la Almadraba enables an accessible path between the two banks of La Flecha. The high scenic value of this protected natural site suggests implementing a reversible installation through a wooden pedestrian path that gradually enters the thick bush of broom and prickly pear. The geometry of this walkway results from overcoming the two powerful dune cords that precede the Atlantic Ocean, thus avoiding significant earth movements that would alter the existing landscape and excessive slopes that would prevent access for people with reduced mobility. The design of the walkway is based on usual industrial systems, although the dimensions have been modified so that the protection elements of the railing are also fastening, resulting in a more abstract element that crosses the landscape without denoting its scale and makes it difficult for pedestrians to access the natural site outside the walkway area, thus protecting the flora of rush, thistle, lily, and sea caterpillar and the nesting of harriers, storks, and little egrets.

The project on this protected architectural and landscape ensemble has sought to recover the industrial sense of the almadrabero process, thus revealing the heritage and ethnological legacy of a millennial fishing art that coexisted in harmony with the landscape of the Huelva coast.