Reservoir Hero

Valverde. A remote island capital that developed after colonization offers a site for the third topic of the Europan competition: Colonization. El Hierro, the Zero Meridian island, known as the remote end of the west, will nevertheless become the first one in the world to be energy self-sufficient. Two water reservoirs and a wind farm will ensure it. Water and the same easterly surface trade winds that blow predominantly in the island brought the westerners that changed its name from Hero to Hierro. The proposed site forms a natural elevated edge of Valverde, a natural ex-tension facing East, the winds and the sea.The main issue of the competition is set with acute accuracy: ‘Regarding Europan 10, some sites are pure extensions. Is it possible to evaluate in what type of urban structure the colonized territory has the largest efficiency at the ecological level?’ The certainty that the site territory will be colonized seems in conflict with the demand of a sustainable urban structure. Except if the site could remain a natural ex-tension. The proposal for the territory’s colonization is a slight elevation of its terrain towards the sea and the east, mainly aiming at preserving the essence of this natural extension: From the city the view of the intervention eventually will not be urban but rural: a field. ‘During winter the inhabitants carefully collect the rainwater in heros or cisterns. One quarter of an hour from Valverde, about forty of them are carved in the tuff. One can witness similar ones in other valleys of the island and each community keeps guardians close to these precious reservoirs.’ A surface with an inclination towards the city is created, at the lowest point of which a water reservoir is found: A Hero.The site is undoubtedly the east tip of the planned extension of Valverde and also a natural land extension. The proposal envisages the integration of the two: urban extension as land extension. As landscape. The main frontage the GreenValley or ValVerde could be a concrete illustration of El Hierro’s sustainability policy. Its colonization either in the framework of the competition or essentially in reality should distil from colonization its least obvious meaning: Respect.

Reservoir Hero

Valverde. A remote island capital that developed after colonization offers a site for the third topic of the Europan competition: Colonization. El Hierro, the Zero Meridian island, known as the remote end of the west, will nevertheless become the first one in the world to be energy self-sufficient. Two water reservoirs and a wind farm will ensure it. Water and the same easterly surface trade winds that blow predominantly in the island brought the westerners that changed its name from Hero to Hierro. The proposed site forms a natural elevated edge of Valverde, a natural ex-tension facing East, the winds and the sea.The main issue of the competition is set with acute accuracy: ‘Regarding Europan 10, some sites are pure extensions. Is it possible to evaluate in what type of urban structure the colonized territory has the largest efficiency at the ecological level?’ The certainty that the site territory will be colonized seems in conflict with the demand of a sustainable urban structure. Except if the site could remain a natural ex-tension. The proposal for the territory’s colonization is a slight elevation of its terrain towards the sea and the east, mainly aiming at preserving the essence of this natural extension: From the city the view of the intervention eventually will not be urban but rural: a field. ‘During winter the inhabitants carefully collect the rainwater in heros or cisterns. One quarter of an hour from Valverde, about forty of them are carved in the tuff. One can witness similar ones in other valleys of the island and each community keeps guardians close to these precious reservoirs.’ A surface with an inclination towards the city is created, at the lowest point of which a water reservoir is found: A Hero.The site is undoubtedly the east tip of the planned extension of Valverde and also a natural land extension. The proposal envisages the integration of the two: urban extension as land extension. As landscape. The main frontage the GreenValley or ValVerde could be a concrete illustration of El Hierro’s sustainability policy. Its colonization either in the framework of the competition or essentially in reality should distil from colonization its least obvious meaning: Respect.