In this project to restore the south and west façades of Nuestra Señora del Rebollet Church, the building must be…
In this project to restore the south and west façades of Nuestra Señora del Rebollet Church, the building must be understood as a valuable historical document revealing the original construction process, the history of the building and even the story of the city’s development when analysed architecturally and archaeologically. For this reason, we applied the principles of neutrality and minimal intervention established by the theory of restoration. This helped us to reconcile the following aspects: preserving historical-cultural, material and constructive authenticity; reversibility; distinguishability; compatibility and sustainability of the current building.
In order to understand the building correctly, we attempted to analyse it from the perspective of the original construction techniques used. From this solid foundation, we were able to safeguard the building’s constructive characteristics, select the most suitable materials and justify the execution of our intervention.
With this in mind, we approached the restoration of the south and west façades as a ‘modest’ intervention seeking to restore and preserve the wall as a witness to another era. The traces and imprints left by the original construction process were respected, as were the surface coatings and patinas of the walls which play a clear functional and aesthetic role. This did not prevent us from reintegrating the existing lacunas and restoring the cladding on the eroded areas. In order to aesthetically harmonise the union of new and old, we used the original construction technique.
On the masonry walls in the sacristy and the brick wall above the lateral chapels in the presbytery, we opted to remove the cement mortar cladding installed relatively recently to leave the historical traces and materiality exposed, enhancing the tectonic quality of the building and evoking times past.
The south façade was a collage of different claddings left behind by the building which was attached to the church until it was demolished in 2006.
On the south façade, traces of the gabled roof and the barrel vault of what was once the communion chapel, which no longer exists, can still be seen.
In order to differentiate the reintegrated parts from the original ones, we set the former back several centimetres from the original surface.
