Beiras da Caramiña

An open territory facing the sea, a town whose identity has historically been shaped by the meeting of land and estuary. Located in the Barbanza region and oriented toward the Ría de Arousa, A Pobra do Caramiñal is a landscape formed through its deep relationship with the ocean. Since its origins, the port, fishing, traditional boatbuilding, and the canning industry have set the rhythm of its economic and social development, shaping an urban fabric that descends from the slopes of Mount A Curota until it reaches the shoreline.

The maritime façade therefore represents far more than a physical boundary: it is the space where collective memory, productive activity, and everyday life intertwine. Beaches, marshlands, promenades, and port areas create a mosaic of landscapes where the echoes of maritime tradition coexist with the transformations brought by contemporary urban growth. However, in recent decades, this coastal front has undergone changes that have fragmented its relationship with the town. The expansion of port infrastructures, the dominant presence of the automobile, and the proliferation of disconnected spaces have weakened the continuity between the urban core and the sea, generating tensions between historical heritage and current dynamics of mobility and public space use.

It is within this context that Beiras da Caramiña emerges, a proposal that seeks to rebuild this essential link between the town and its coastline. Rather than a punctual intervention, the project proposes a territorial vision capable of reading the historical, geographical, and social structure of the place and transforming it into a coherent urban strategy. The proposal recognizes the slopes, the transversal routes descending toward the sea, and the coastal-parallel bands as fundamental elements of the urban structure, interpreting them as parts of a system that connects the mountain, the town, and the estuary.

From this reading arises the idea of a new civic axis, conceived as an urban membrane that articulates the relationship between the Beira do Pobo—the town—and the Beira do Mar—the coastline. This axis is not understood merely as a mobility infrastructure, but as a space for encounter, social interaction, and everyday activity. Along its route, facilities, squares, and public spaces are organized to reinforce community life and energize local commerce, recovering the logic of traditional urbanism in which the square, the market, the street, and the sea formed part of the same system of relationships.

The proposal advocates for a city designed for pedestrians, where the continuity of routes, universal accessibility, and improved environmental comfort help rebalance the uses of public space. The implementation of shared platforms, the reorganization of traffic, and the creation of new transversal connections make it easier for the town to once again turn toward the sea, restoring a visual and functional relationship that had been weakened. At the same time, small squares, parks, and resting areas are distributed along the civic axis, creating a sequence of places where urban life can develop with greater intensity and diversity.

The intervention is also supported by an environmental strategy that integrates green and blue infrastructure throughout the project. Sustainable drainage systems, permeable pavements, and new tree alignments improve water management, increase urban biodiversity, and create ecological corridors connecting the coastline with the agroforestry mosaic of the mountain. In this way, the proposal not only improves the environmental quality of public space but also strengthens the territory’s resilience in the face of climate challenges.

Through materiality and landscape, the project seeks to build a new urban experience grounded in proximity, memory, and sustainability. Stones, trees, squares, and pathways are not conceived as isolated elements, but as part of a tangible urbanity that shapes the character of the place. Beiras da Caramiña thus aspires to consolidate a maritime façade where public space acts as the support of collective life, recovering the maritime identity of A Pobra do Caramiñal and projecting it toward a future that is more livable, inclusive, and balanced between city, community, and sea.