Matias Botero
– PALIMPSEST GARDEN
– PALIMPSEST GARDEN
The mud walls of the Almanshia railway station in Alula are disintegrating. In a few decades, they will no longer be there. The mud, once erected upon itself, has today half returned to the ground. The ruin is an intermediary stage in the transition of matter from verticality back to horizontality. In this liminal state, devoid of their original function, the walls straddle ambiguously between being architecture, and being landscape. As such, they become stimulating hosts for contemplation, play, creation…
Our project stems from a paradoxical desire: to perpetuate the ephemeral beauty of the eroding walls. However tempting it might be to go about this by freezing the walls in their actual state1, we consider that that would be the ruin’s ruin. The ruin is a state, and its essence lies in its perpetual transformation. Thus, we propose that what ought to be perpetuated is the process of disintegration itself, rather than the specific forms it has thus far yielded.
We consider that ‘the ruin’ is itself an architectural program: the experiential possibilities it generates are sufficient in themselves. We therefore propose to officialize the today inaccessible site as a garden; a garden of ruins, where erosion and time’s passage are the main themes.
To perpetuate disintegration we propose to build new walls, that will in turn disintegrate. This construction is taken as an opportunity to sublimate the arc of the wall’s life: out of flatness, matter is displaced to erect a wall—a hole is dug; once piled up, the extreme heat and cold of the desert, as well as the harsh winds and seasonal rain storms begin to erode the wall; eventually the matter returns to the ground, the hole is filled back up. The project replicates this cycle of matter at the scale of the entire site. We dig an indentation on the terrain and make an adjacent mound. The material for the project thus comes from the site itself. A labyrinthic matrix of walls, that is a proliferation of the existing spatial structure, are used as retention elements for the displaced ground. The site becomes terraced, topographic. An architectural landscape, disintegrating.
A palimpsest is a parchemin where multiple layers of text have been superposed through time upon each other. Out of this superposition, new meanings emerge. In a sense, the Almanshia railway station is a palimpsest2. Built incrementally, with various materials and in response to different cultures and needs, all its layers coexist today, generating peculiar spatial situations as they disintegrate at different rates. The site is thus the product of a process of layering, which our project intends to continue. The construction of the new walls officializes what the abandoned railway station already is : a Palimpsest garden.
As the Saoudi economy mutates from oil to tourism, the Alula valley promises to undergo significant change. Given its aesthetic and cultural capital3 The Royal Commission intends to position AlUla in the global panorama, attracting 2 million tourists annually by 2030. The question of how to treat the disintegrating mud walls is today a point of contention: the disparition of the walls means losing significant tourist attraction; the stabilization of the walls is only a temporary solution; the reconstruction of the site means the potential loss of archeological material.
Among the major urban changes effected to the today primarily agricultural city4, is the construction of a tram line, following the path of the historical railway tracks, and connecting the major heritage sites. The Almanshia station will be the first stop of this tram line, and thus the entry gate to AlUla for the outside world. Located in a residential neighbourhood, the site is today surrounded by a mosque, two schools and a market. Thus situated at a point of daily flux of publics both local and international, Palimpsest garden functions as a public space addressed to all. The perimeter of intervention was defined by drawing the smallest possible rectangle that encloses the entirety of the site. Given the irregular contour of the existing plan, the negative spaces between the old and new perimeter became the spaces of intervention. Approximately the size of a soccer field, Palimpsest garden intertwines a diversity of spatial situations: the lookout point; the valley; the fresh date grove; the narrow alleyway and the spacious hall; rooms both roofed and open to the sky; the stone, the mud, and the concrete wall; the new and old.
To recapitulate: the Almanshia site is characterized by the interplay of two processes acting in opposite directions: incremental construction and perpetual erosion. Our project endeavours to continue the historic process of layering by adding a new set of walls, so that the material process of erosion can continue to produce marvellous and thought provoking forms that are midway between architecture and landscape.
Our project stems from a paradoxical desire: to perpetuate the ephemeral beauty of the eroding walls. However tempting it might be to go about this by freezing the walls in their actual state1, we consider that that would be the ruin’s ruin. The ruin is a state, and its essence lies in its perpetual transformation. Thus, we propose that what ought to be perpetuated is the process of disintegration itself, rather than the specific forms it has thus far yielded.
We consider that ‘the ruin’ is itself an architectural program: the experiential possibilities it generates are sufficient in themselves. We therefore propose to officialize the today inaccessible site as a garden; a garden of ruins, where erosion and time’s passage are the main themes.
To perpetuate disintegration we propose to build new walls, that will in turn disintegrate. This construction is taken as an opportunity to sublimate the arc of the wall’s life: out of flatness, matter is displaced to erect a wall—a hole is dug; once piled up, the extreme heat and cold of the desert, as well as the harsh winds and seasonal rain storms begin to erode the wall; eventually the matter returns to the ground, the hole is filled back up. The project replicates this cycle of matter at the scale of the entire site. We dig an indentation on the terrain and make an adjacent mound. The material for the project thus comes from the site itself. A labyrinthic matrix of walls, that is a proliferation of the existing spatial structure, are used as retention elements for the displaced ground. The site becomes terraced, topographic. An architectural landscape, disintegrating.
A palimpsest is a parchemin where multiple layers of text have been superposed through time upon each other. Out of this superposition, new meanings emerge. In a sense, the Almanshia railway station is a palimpsest2. Built incrementally, with various materials and in response to different cultures and needs, all its layers coexist today, generating peculiar spatial situations as they disintegrate at different rates. The site is thus the product of a process of layering, which our project intends to continue. The construction of the new walls officializes what the abandoned railway station already is : a Palimpsest garden.
As the Saoudi economy mutates from oil to tourism, the Alula valley promises to undergo significant change. Given its aesthetic and cultural capital3 The Royal Commission intends to position AlUla in the global panorama, attracting 2 million tourists annually by 2030. The question of how to treat the disintegrating mud walls is today a point of contention: the disparition of the walls means losing significant tourist attraction; the stabilization of the walls is only a temporary solution; the reconstruction of the site means the potential loss of archeological material.
Among the major urban changes effected to the today primarily agricultural city4, is the construction of a tram line, following the path of the historical railway tracks, and connecting the major heritage sites. The Almanshia station will be the first stop of this tram line, and thus the entry gate to AlUla for the outside world. Located in a residential neighbourhood, the site is today surrounded by a mosque, two schools and a market. Thus situated at a point of daily flux of publics both local and international, Palimpsest garden functions as a public space addressed to all. The perimeter of intervention was defined by drawing the smallest possible rectangle that encloses the entirety of the site. Given the irregular contour of the existing plan, the negative spaces between the old and new perimeter became the spaces of intervention. Approximately the size of a soccer field, Palimpsest garden intertwines a diversity of spatial situations: the lookout point; the valley; the fresh date grove; the narrow alleyway and the spacious hall; rooms both roofed and open to the sky; the stone, the mud, and the concrete wall; the new and old.
To recapitulate: the Almanshia site is characterized by the interplay of two processes acting in opposite directions: incremental construction and perpetual erosion. Our project endeavours to continue the historic process of layering by adding a new set of walls, so that the material process of erosion can continue to produce marvellous and thought provoking forms that are midway between architecture and landscape.
[1] At present in Alula, three main strategies are used to treat the mud walls, all of which have in common the impulse to stop the process of disintegration. Identical reconstruction, stabilisation of the ruin as a ruin, and restructuration.
[2] The site was at first a well. At the outset of the XXth century, the Ottoman empire embarked on the construction of a railway line connecting Damascus to Mecca. In 1907, The Almanshia Station was inaugurated with the construction of a series of stone pavilions along the tracks, including a railway station, a storage unit, a twin water tower and a metal wind pump, a residential unit for the station master, a telegraph office, and a bathroom and utility unit. In 1914, the Turks joined WWI as an ally of the central powers. The Arabs, whose territory was under Ottomans control, supported the British through the Arab Revolt. In 1918, A perimeter mud wall was built to protect the station from Bedouin attacks. In the same year, however, the station was bombarded by air. In 1919, the Ottoman control of the station came to a complete end. In 1925 what was left of the railway tracks was completely damaged by a flood. During the same year, the site was transformed into the Imara (town hall of the local governor, or Amir). This led to the construction of a series of mud buildings using vernacular techniques, as well as a few adaptations to the building from the ottoman period. Thus, what was once a secondary railway station grew to incorporate administrative offices, reception halls, a mosque, residential quarters for the amir, his family, servants and guests, a police department, and telegraph office. In 1964, the Imara changed location, and the site has remained abandoned till today.
[3] Alula is an Oasis in the desert. Given this privileged situation the site has been inhabited since the cradle of human civilization. Furthermore, it was a key stop in the incense and spice road, which implied it was a place of intense cultural and economic exchange. Numerous civilizations have left their traces, including the Dadanites and Nabatheans.
[4] Another prospected change is the installation of a high volume pipeline. Cutting through the hejaz mountain range and all the way to a desalination plant in the red sea, its purpose is to remedy the city's already precarious water situation. In fact, the pressure of the current date agriculture already exceeded the oasis’ equilibrium, so the water table is sinking deeper each year.
