Tras el territorio circular. Paisajes cotidianos de la periferia gallega

Resumen

The thesis asks about the forms of the region and finds answer in the landscape. The work focuses on the study of a fragment of the interior of Galicia. The labyrinthine topography proper to the area, with significant slope changes in relation to the immediate territory and strong contrasts on short distances, causes a fragmented distribution of fertile soil from which a habitat has derived from small dispersed settlements, initially located on hills and elevated plains, and later moved to the lowlands. In the evolution of this territorial model, the position of agricultural land is presented as the permanent basis in the evolution of the territory versus the roaming of the hamlets. Throughout the centuries agriculture has been the main motor in the dynamics of construction of this territory. The exploitation of the resources of the environment has been organized as a combination of the various types of soil - mount, crop, meadow -, presented as small bags intermixed and distributed throughout the region. This system has been molded over time on the basis of a circular forming matrix, from which was generated alveolar geometry meshes, curved traces with three-ways crosses, terraces of variable height, intentional movements of water, and a subtle gradation of spaces with greater or lesser confluence of people. This form given to the region is closely connected with the use, because it is thanks to the arrangement of terraces and the organic imbrication of some cells with others that the traditional agrarian system has been able to maintain a high productivity, conserving at the same time the fertility of the soil and a certain biodiversity. This singularity of the built territory¿s morphology is revealed in the production of complex and fragile landscapes, where dominates the atmospheric perception that involves body, feeling and memory: - interlaced landscapes that are perceived as interwoven enclosures, - sensitive landscapes of misty perception, - inverse landscapes starring the modeled vacuum, - landscapes of overlapping diffuse boundaries, - sedimentation landscapes of layers of past histories, and - inhabited landscapes of territories lived from the day to day. The composition of the imaginary of the local inhabitants is resolved as a sum of fragments, related to the affective warp, which leads to define the landscape of the region as a puzle of small landscapes, which refers to a territory formally organized in enclosures, which is experienced in the short distance, in a constant proximity. The most significant patterns are those that contain the nearby mountain, the tree and the water. To explain the identity of the place we define four concepts: - the diffuse, barely perceptible boundary, that delimits enclosures that run without interruption; - the circularity, which refers to the centers around which space is ordered, and also to the morphology derived from the alveolar mesh where the roundness causes proximity, movement and uncertainty; - the configuration vacuum, which includes the intentional molding of the territory, which emphasizes the relevance of the form of free space enclosed; and - the foggy perception, where the frequent situation of semi-hiding place by the fog implies the intensity of a present in which there is no anticipation, the observer attitude of details not obvious, or the receptivity of stimuli through the body that feels. The valorization of this small country will depend on the correct understanding of the forms of its territory and the formulation of strategies that activate and renew a complex system of exploitation of the environment, where the question of the landscape is revealed necessary, bearer of the keys that will revalidate their cultural and productive wealth.