LIFE Wood for Future endorsed the candidacy ‘Chopo Activo’, led by Granada architect Ignacio de Teresa

Granada, August 2, 2022

The ‘Chopo Activo’ project, by architects Ignacio de Teresa, Lucía de Molina, Xianjun Zhou and Ignacio Hornillos, has received a mention in the competition for the design of the temporary pavilion of the TAC! Urban Architecture Festival, launched by the Ministry of Transport, Mobility and Urban Agenda (Mitma), in collaboration with the Arquia Foundation. The winning project was ‘Aire’, by the Madrid studio P + S, which will be built in the Plaza del Humilladero next fall, on the occasion of the first edition of the festival in Granada. Almost a hundred proposals from all over the world were submitted to the competition, in which another two projects were awarded as finalists and four received mentions “for their architectural quality, as well as for their constructive integrity and coherence,” according to the jury.

LIFE Wood for Future, the project led by the University of Granada (UGR) with European funding to recover the poplar groves and promote a poplar bioeconomy in the province, endorsed the candidacy of ‘Chopo Activo’, which offers an innovative vision of the traditional tobacco drying sheds of the Vega de Granada.

The proposal proposes to build a structure of poplar trunks, using the elements of lesser value from the felling of poplar trees in Granada, as has traditionally been done in the construction of tobacco drying sheds in the Vega, says Ignacio de Teresa. “It seemed very suggestive to us to put in the center of the city a structure of the countryside, simple and cheap, that accumulates a know-how of building of many years, and to fill it with contemporaneity and technology so that the city proposes uses in it.” The architect recalls that, in the face of urban pressure, this industrial architectural heritage is a key piece to reactivate the Vega.

With a frame between trunks similar to that of poplar trees, the ‘Chopo Activo’ pavilion is structured in 4 x 4 meter modules. Like traditional drying sheds, it has no foundations, so that once it is dismantled there is no residue, and thanks to current technological know-how, the use of metal plates would allow the pavilion to be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere. Through the use of cables, mesh and electrical netting, the result is a multi-purpose structure, with space for games and swings, rest areas and hanging exhibits.

Wood for building from Al Ándalus

The use of poplar in construction in Granada dates back at least to the time of Al Ándalus. For centuries the wood was obtained from the wild poplar groves that populated the riverbanks of the Vega to build scaffolding, roofs and decks, until the end of the 19th century, when the high demand for this raw material for the construction of houses and tobacco drying sheds led to the first massive repopulations and a period of splendor for poplar groves.

The use of poplar as structural wood declined in the second half of the 20th century, when it was replaced by bricks and concrete in drying sheds and rural constructions, while scaffolding began to be made of metal. Since then, its main use has been in the manufacture of crates and packaging for the fruit and vegetable industry.

The LIFE Wood for Future/Madera para el Futuro project aims to be the engine of a ‘second poplar revolution’ in Granada that will contribute to the improvement of biodiversity and carbon sequestration, while boosting the local economy thanks to the growing demand for wood for sustainable construction worldwide. To this end, two innovative products are being developed at the UGR’s School of Building Engineering and the University of Santiago de Compostela’s Wood Engineering Platform (Pemade): mixed poplar and pine laminated beams and mixed wood and concrete prefabricated products.

“Poplar trees have a high capacity to capture carbon from the atmosphere, up to 30 tons per hectare per year, and provide multiple other environmental benefits: they act as green filters that clean the water that reaches the aquifers, moderate river floods and protect against erosion, refresh the environment, conserve soil quality, improve air quality and are habitat for many species of fauna.” recalls Antolino Gallego, professor at the UGR and coordinator of LIFE Wood for Future, a project in which the Confederation of Forestry Organizations of Spain, the Diputación de Granada, the University of Santiago de Compostela and the spinoff 3edata also participate.

PHOTOS: Recreations of the proposal ‘Chopo Activo’.