Introduction

INTRODUCTION

The village of Jánovas, in the valley of Ara river, has been investigated by an international group of Architecture students, from KU Leuven University, in Belgium. Throughout a semester, they have analysed this place, with the aim of understanding its transformation in the last decades, its current limitations, and its huge potential. At the same time, certain strategies have been collectively developed, from the different focus topics proposed by the students. These strategies must enable the respectful adaptation of the spaces, allowing the improvement of the welfare of inhabitants in this kind of settlements, while enhancing the value that cultural and natural heritage in this place has. Vernacular heritage becomes the central element to empower these mountain territories, contributing to fight depopulation. Jánovas was depopulated some decades ago, due to its expropriation by the central government, with the aim of developing a big dam for electricity production and water storage through Ara river. Besides the forced eviction of several settlements, whose spaces would be directly flooded by the level of the new dam, many other small villages were also affected by other indirect interventions. It is the case of the nearby valley of La Solana, whose slopes and terraced fields were reforested, forcind their inhabitants to leave. These events generated the complete de-structuring of the territorial network which was formed by these settlements, and which nowadays still remain. Finally, after several years of trials and research, the authorities decided that the dam would not be built, although by then the project had already generated a deeply negative social impact. After several decades being depopulated, and due also to some disrespectful interventions made by the authorities during the eviction of the neighbours, the urban structure of Jánovas was much deteriorated. Only in the last years, former owners have been able to recover the tenure of their lands and properties, and some of them have even started their recovery. The big value which existing spaces have, and the urgent need of recovering and transforming them, in order to be able to reuse them by their former inhabitants, represents a unique opportunity to rethink how to live in a rural settlement nowadays, adapted to current life conditions. This interesting process integrates existing spatial elements but also some which still remain in the memories of the community, together with new spatial needs of the users, which make it necessary to mediate among the past and future of Jánovas. For that purpose, different urgent matters, which are currently subject of debate in planning of rural territories, are proposed and investigated by the students: accessibility and mobility; provision of basic services and infrastructures; design and adaptation of collective outdoor and indoor spaces in small settlements; sustainable integration of tourism as supporting activity for local communities; the importance of enhancing endogenous resources and local circular economies; adaptation of existing typologies to current spatial conditions; and in general, about the significance of vernacular architecture nowadays. Through these different topics, the students were able to identify several challenges and opportunities, in relation to the existing spaces of the village, and their characteristics. From that moment, they proposed different intervention strategies for the vernacular spaces of the settlement, in order to face those problems, taking advantage of the spatial qualities detected. These strategies were developed and discussed collectively, making connections between each-other, being aware of the importance of working at a larger scale among the different settlements. This allows to generate links and take advantage of the synergies triggered by different activities, using the specific values which these settlements present in their territory. The conclusions of this work highlight the important task developed by local communities, involved in maintaining activity and the memory of these places. At the same time, they unveil the urgency of proposing interventions to adapt those heritage spaces, being sensitive and respectful with local identity. For that, they must enable the realisation of new activities in these vernacular spaces, facilitating their maintenance and evolution, which would allow future generations to keep discovering and inhabiting these landscapes of memory.