Wastewater Treatment Plant of Alt Maresme Nord Tordera, Pineda de Mar. Barcelona

THE RESTORATION OF A LANDSCAPE SPACE AND A NEW
ENVIRONMENTAL FACILITY

A wastewater treatment plant (wwtp) is a big territorial “filter” which roughly purifies water after urban use before returning it to the sea. So we imagined that this image of “filter” could be the image of the treatment plant. A filter between spaces, a light filter, a filter between the landscape and an industrial image installation.

The Alt Maresme WWTP project includes sewage sanitation system consisting of 3 different facilities and strategically located in the territory, the Pump Station (PS) at the mouth of the stream of Pineda, the Pretreatment (PT) in front the beach near a small cemetery, and the treatment of sludge and waters line, located in the former Montpalau’s quarry (WWTP).

The part built on the coast, the pretreatment station (PT), buries in the ground to assimilate in height partly to the nearby cemetery. The white finish and lack of openings to the outside makes the building look like an extension of the cemetery fence. In contrast to the two smaller facilities, PS and PT, which respond directly to their urban environment, the WWTP plant, of sludge treatment, is located within the quarry and is conceived as an scenographic exercise with a single facade inserted in the landscape.

The project seeks to use the construction of the WWTP to improve substantially the image of the old Montpalau quarry currently unused. The landscape component of the intervention must be an improvement in the perception of the forest and agricultural landscape of its surroundings. The search for the landscape quality of the new intervention does not arise from cosmetics, but from the generation of new premises for the landscape restoration of an old quarry and the very concept of the new facility.

The new environmental facility is organized by parallel strips separated by plant spaces in continuity with the forest. A large metal volume will house the visitor’s center and staff facilities. A large facade formed by metal filters frames the main volume and generates the only image we have of it from outside.