Hostel of the Good Way
Thousands of people, almost 300,000 in 2016, travel the various routes that make up the Camino de Santiago every year, where people motivated by religious motives mix with others who seek to free their minds, reconnect with nature or find an alternative way to discover Spain and the richness of its territories and landscapes, surrounded by an international atmosphere.
Following a friend's request and with the collaboration of Adriana Jaquelin López Neto, a student at the Universidad Simón Bolívar in Caracas, who was developing her internship and final year project at Ctrl+Z at that time, a proposal was developed for a prototype that could be installed reversibly at different points along the livestock trails that make up the Ruta de la Plata.
The Ruta de la Plata is the main route from the south of the peninsula and is characterised by long distances between towns and extreme temperatures in summer. The possibility of building different hostels is detected in the sections that, being further from the towns, have a certain lack of services.
The Ruta de la Plata is the main route from the south of the peninsula and is characterised by long distances between towns and extreme temperatures in summer. The possibility of building different hostels is detected in the sections that, being further from the towns, have a certain lack of services.
The idea is embodied in the project of the “Albergue del Buen Camino” which proposes units of 125 m2 built with capacity to accommodate up to eight pilgrims. Different units can be grouped around a distribution space, a central plaza for recreation, social interaction and rest.
The shelters have been designed in “superadobe”, a construction technique that is easily appropriated and replicable, very robust and based on a natural and abundant material such as earth.
The design is intended to incorporate passive strategies and to be able to adapt to different installation locations, always taking into account the orientation of the interior environments and the self-supply of energy that accompanies each shelter.
The architectural proposal is organized based on the specific and peculiar needs of the hostel users: the pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago. A fluid space is thus created where the access location is at the intersection of the three domes that make up each unit, with the aim of providing efficient and intuitive circulation within it and from the moment of arrival at the hostel.
The architectural proposal is organized based on the specific and peculiar needs of the hostel users: the pilgrims of the Camino de Santiago. A fluid space is thus created where the access location is at the intersection of the three domes that make up each unit, with the aim of providing efficient and intuitive circulation within it and from the moment of arrival at the hostel.
An application manages the guests of each hostel from booking to payment, so that they can plan their route using their mobile device based on availability.
Future
Although various factors prevented progress with the development of the proposal and the construction of the pilot project at the time, the current situation and the continued increase in the number of pilgrims who travel the Camino encourages more and more people to show interest in building and managing a hostel near their town as a means of creating fair and local employment.
