Marxes Líquidas

Tui is considered one of the oldest cities in Galicia, inhabited for the last 2000 years. Tui presents an imposing image solidified over the Miño River. At the top of its hill, the cathedral reveals itself as the city's reference point. From there, its urban structure unfolds fluidly and stepwise down to the riverbank.

The walls, which once characterized the city's profile and determined its development, were demolished in the early 19th century, allowing the city to open up and the installation of various services. Some places remained as some of the main public spaces of the city, gradually transforming into riverside landscapes and hosting parks and gardens by the river.

From the high part of the city, one can see the river flowing towards the sea and the entire Atlantic coast. This oscillation between the riverbanks and the mountain is very characteristic of the Lower Miño region, with its succession of mountains and valleys of varying amplitudes. The relationship between the sea and the Miño River, the fluid exchange between fresh and salt water, entails a great variety of vegetation present on the banks. The path along the banks of the Miño River as it passes through Tui allows one to experience the different landscape situations characteristic of a larger geographical area defined by the valley itself, revealing a landscape resulting from the connection between the city-hill and the river-sea. In different seasons of the year, some areas near the river become flooded due to flow variations, resulting in episodes of flooding in the city.

It is precisely this identity condition of strata and fluid dynamics of the city and its relationship with the river that is sought to be emphasized in the proposal and that gives it its name: Liquid margins (liquid banks). The proposal encompasses the entire area defined by the contact between the Miño River and the city of Tui, from the international bridge to the Rosendo Troncoso gardens, focusing particularly on the riverbank, its spaces and habitats, and its integration with the existing fabric and facilities.

The urban integration between the river and the city is achieved through two complementary strategies:

-Morphological adaptation of the different strata. Since the Roman terraces, the walls, the morphology of Tui shows a harmonious play of fluid folds of different materiality resulting from the evolution of the city. The proposal develops these formal patterns to embrace the banks of the Miño, providing them with new "marxes," which, by playing with the topography, walls, terraces, soils of different infiltration capacities, and masses of vegetation, articulate the city with the Miño. This compositional tool of the project ensures the preservation of the city's image over the river, which continues to glide smoothly along the new "marxes," helping to enhance visual relationships, in open diagonals, between the city and the river. At the same time that the city gently settles on the riverbank, a continuous route is generated in the longitudinal direction, articulating different public spaces from the international bridge to the Rosendo G. Troncoso gardens. The proposal even dares to imagine something beyond, activating the (wet) forest located on the riverbank, at the foot of the Rosendo G. Troncoso gardens, with the aim of connecting this point of the city with the entire riverbank and continuing along the existing path to Praia de Areeiros. All these spaces have been designed to be capable of accommodating a multiplicity of uses, in harmony with the changing conditions of the place.

-Ecological diversity, embracing river dynamics. From the river to the city, a sequence of strata or marshes (wet vegetation, herbaceous plants, vegetated micro-reliefs, and permeable pavements with varying infiltration capacities) is proposed, which, without opposing the river, are capable of absorbing its floods.
In this way, the proposal integrates with the river dynamics while also providing resilience, that is, adaptation to floods (which are expected to be more frequent in the future due to the effects of climate change), ensuring its sustainability over time. In contact with the city, the sequence of embankments and walls negotiates with the site's topography, enhancing accessibility to gathering spaces and ensuring a path (elevated 8m above the river's average level) so that the riverbank remains accessible in case of floods like those that have occurred. This attitude towards the place, its dynamics, and ecologies not only does not entail any environmental impact, but also implies its regeneration, as it expands the gradient of species likely to inhabit the riverbank. In this way, the project is consistent with the contemporary conception of rivers as ecosystems under the Water Framework Directive. This approach pays special attention to the so-called transition ecosystems (wetlands, riverbanks, etc.). And it's not just about ensuring the connection of this stretch of the river with the future Miño green corridor and the metropolitan green infrastructure, but also about promoting its biodiversity and resilience to the effects of climate change. The riverbanks constitute a key element in determining the ecological status of rivers, considering that they provide the physical support for the processes that take place at the water-land interface, harboring a very high biological diversity. The project promotes, through its various morphologies and materialities, the expansion of the gradient of habitats capable of supporting potential vegetation.

The previously defined strategies allow for the integration of open spaces and public facilities through a stitching operation articulated by terracing, walls, pavements, and vegetation.

Richard Long was probably the first contemporary artist to conceive walking as a form of art. Hamish Fulton, another walking artist, says: "Walking is constant, the medium of art is what changes." This idea of the art of walking feeds the proposed river route, conceived as an individual experience, where the project provides the medium through which to experience the different "rooms of landscape." The intention is not to impose a route, but to enable the environment, in a fluid and changing context as previously explained.