The architectural ruin holds a special place in critical theory. While alluding to the past, ruins are objects rooted in the present imagination, either serving as “traces of the past” or “permanent ruins” that function as tourist attractions. The image of the ruin, a sequence of “ambivalent prepositions—“no longer” and “not yet,” “nevertheless” and “albeit”—that play tricks with causality [make] us think of the past that could have been and the future that never took place, tantalising us with utopian dreams of escaping the irreversibility of time,” as Svetlana Boym writes in Architecture of the Off-Modern. The binary bind that this image represents, sitting between the past and the present, what has passed and what will happen, between the destructive processes of nature and the cultural significations of man, has always been potent in literature and culture, as a symbol for nostalgia, for the constant struggle between man and nature, the inevitable and the unresolved. For this reason, the image persists, as an anchor for the present.

In Porcuna, a small town in Spain, the ruins of a water storage tank from the Roman civilisation possibly linked to a larger system of water infrastructure, attest to the existence of Obulco city on that site. Built in the first century BCE, the city was at one point the largest Roman settlement in Hispania. First discovered by chance during the Spanish Civil War in the 20th century, the remains were declared an Asset of Cultural Interest in 2014 according to the architects responsible for the historic site’s restoration. The revitalisation of the structures and the site—of interest to experts because of their complex infrastructure—by Spanish architect Pablo Millán included creating a new visitor centre that would facilitate public access to the archaeological remains. The intervention aimed to provide access to the ruins and fully uncover them since the area where the water tank stood had been buried with stone slabs as the city expanded.

The new public building on an empty plot takes into consideration the houses located on the Roman complex, buried nine metres below ground. To minimally affect these buildings, a bridge and tunnel were constructed to reach the underground cistern. The design of this visitor centre that adds to the facilities on site is a simple white cube, which sits on top of an exposed concrete structure, with a 100-metre-long suspended ramp that descends from the upper level of the building. Moreover, the volume of the new block that manifests itself above ground is a clear sign of the cistern monument itself, buried underground.

The simplicity of the intervention, conceived of as a porous block with symmetric columns, is reminiscent of Roman collonaded structures, echoing a continuity to the site’s history. Further, the monochromatic, light-hued palette of white and grey concrete allows the new public architecture to recede into the background, bringing the ruins into prominence. As Millán describes, this dichotomy between ancient and contemporary, the lightness of the visitor centre and the heft of the Roman stone architecture represents the culmination of “two worlds”. “The design process was to seek the greatest possible abstraction by creating an essential architecture that would allow the ruin to be given all the prominence. To do this, two worlds were designed,” he elaborates on creating a distinction between both design languages.

“The world of order versus the world of chaos, the world of geometry versus the world of archaeological ruins. Therefore, the world above is white, sober, ordered, serene and the world below is black, chaotic due to destruction and ruin,” he continues. While highlighting the ruination of the ruins through a minimal design, the circulation for the building brings to mind the logic of Bernard Tschumi’s Acropolis Museum in Athens. Tschumi’s museum design, which similarly sits over the ruins of Greek civilisation follows a chronological sequence moving upwards to the site of the Acropolis. On the other hand, La Calderona cistern’s public circulation hinges on the ramp design that moves downward into the site.

As the visitors enter the public space, they are led through a walkway downward where the archaeological ruins were previously buried. “The project is based on a structural logic and the Latin concept of noli me tangere. This concept aims to not touch the ruin at any time, which is why the entire structure is hung so as not to touch it. The visitor walks among the ruins but does not touch them,” Millan elaborates on the accessible design of the building.

What is perhaps most distinctive about the structure is that the ruins are not covered by any screen or casing. Instead, while visitors are not allowed to touch them, they are not uprooted from their context. This gesture, not to mention the process of preservation for the tangible artefacts of history in itself presents a particular challenge for designers. Millán, a native of Porcun, has previously been involved in other restoration interventions in the area including that of the parish centre, the refurbishment of the Royal Granary of Charles IV and of the hermitage of Santa Ana.

Speaking about the challenges of the context in the case of his most recent project, he shares, “There are many challenges, but the most important one, I think, is to make the ruin coexist with contemporary architecture. There is a text by Francesco Venezia la separazione fatale that narrates the separation between the ruin and contemporary architecture. Therefore, we must eliminate that separation. The ruin in the end is an “essential architecture” in which what time has left remains. That is the challenge, to work from contemporaneity with the ruin as a sensitive and necessary element. The contemporary project must revolve around the ruin.” The restoration architecture project for the Calderona Roman ruins in Porcuna, emphasises such a dialogue through the contradictions between light and dark, above and below, simplicity and complexity, between historic and contemporary, what has passed and what will, the inevitable and unresolved through design.

Project Details

Name: La Calderona Cistern
Location: Porcuna, Spain
Client: Porcuna Council
Architect: Pablo Millán
Design Team: Cristian Castela González; David Vera García; Simona Belmondo; Inmaculada Cervera Montilla
Collaborators:
Technical Architect: Javier Serrano Terrones; José Miguel Fernández Cuadros
Structure: Salmer Técnicos
Archaeology: ARQVIPO
Architectural Survey: AMR Levantamientos
Construction: TRAGSA
Lighting: Iguzzini
Area: 500sqm
Year of Completion: 2024