Archaeologies of Memory is a research about the relation between form and symbolism, and the way architecture is able to conform the identity of a place. The research is located in Tamajón, a small village in Guadalajara. As many other villages from the centre of Spain, the so-called Meseta, Tamajón is suffering a process which will eventually led to the
abandonment and dissapearance of the village.
Following this research about form and simbolism the proposal includes a plan for the architectural restoration of this village. Tamajón has an urban structure which is quite common in many villages, it has a main street which hosts most of the historical buildings of the town. The idea is to create within this road several layers of preservation, from the ruin to the completelly restored building. This creates a gradient from the outside, where nature and ruin are the main characters, to the interior of the village, with well preserved buildings and a dense urban structure.
The way to achieve this is through small and local interventions in the buildings, which are based in the reinterpretation of the previously studied elements, such as balconies, window, façades, rooftops, walls... These interventions conform an alternative preservation model for these dissapearing villages as Tamajón. It's not based, as the traditional restoration techniques, in the recovery of the original elements the way they looked but in the addition of variations and new elements which respect the original appeareance, produce new values and create a new identity.