The civic form of water in Sierra Nevada: territory, memory and identity

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.20262612307

Keywords:

Water, Drawing, Heritage, Vernacular architecture, Landscape

Abstract

The southern slope of Sierra Nevada forms a unique landscape, the result of centuries of transformation with water as the main shaping agent. Among the elements that structure this landscape, its ancestral system of water resource management, terraced agriculture, and the vernacular architecture of the high-mountain villages stand out as exemplary integrations of natural terrain and human intervention. The study identifies, at different scales, the essential elements through a process of observing and understanding the territory as a system capable of offering the keys to interpret its functioning. It presents a territorial reading of enduring features that survive the passage of time, combined with a careful method of contemporary survey and inventory of fountains, irrigation ditches, urban channels, and washing places that punctuate the urban fabric of its villages. In the civic form of water, the close relationship between inhabitant and landscape is distilled. The paradigmatic case study of Capileira, in the Poqueira Valley, enables a systematisation of urban and infrastructural typologies that dissolves the boundaries between Architecture and Landscape. Finally, the study offers a critical reflection on the heritage value of these singular structures as custodians of the memory and identity of their territory.

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Author Biographies

  • Alejandro Morales Martín, University of Malaga

    Alejandro Morales (Málaga, 1995) holds a Master’s degree in Architecture from the University of Málaga (2019). He completed further training within a European context at the Faculdade de Arquitetura of the Universidade de Lisboa. As an architect, he collaborates on delicate interventions for cities and territories of historical and cultural value, with a focus on materiality and construction through drawing and model-making methods. His emerging practice was selected for the Spanish Pavilion at the 2018 Venice Biennale, and since 2023 he has been part of David Chipperfield Architects’ studio in Santiago de Compostela.

    In the academic field, he has been a contracted research member at the University of Málaga (2020) and is affiliated with the research group TEP-996 Proyecto, Arquitectura Ambiental Avanzada y Nuevas Tecnologías. The findings of his pre-doctoral research have been presented at international conferences and symposiums at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya and the Accademia di Architettura di Mendrisio. Since 2025, he has served as an honorary teaching collaborator in Architectural Design at the University of Málaga.

  • Ferran Ventura Blanch, University of Malaga

    Ferran Ventura Blanch (Barcelona, 1977) qualified as an Architect in 2006 and obtained his Doctorate in Architecture in 2017 from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Sevilla. He has been Professor of Architectural Design at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura of the University of Málaga since 2009. He is currently Deputy Director for Research and Postgraduate Studies at the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Málaga. He is Director of the Chair in Industrialised Advanced Environmental Architecture, and Director of the Laboratory of Advanced Experimental Architecture and New Technologies. He also coordinates the University Master’s Degree in Architectural Projects, Environmental Design and New Technologies.

    He has published scientific articles in journals such as Sustainability, Applied Sciences, EGA Revista de Expresión Gráfica Arquitectónica, Boletín de Arte, and Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental, as well as books with publishers including Dykinson, Editorial Universidad de Sevilla, UMA Editorial, Editorial Universidad de Granada, and Recolectores Urbanos Editorial, among others.

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Published

2026-06-30

Issue

No. 26 (2026): Memory, design and landscape construction

Section

Topic papers

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Copyright (c) 2026 Alejandro Morales Martín, Ferran Ventura Blanch

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

How to Cite

Morales Martín, A., & Ventura Blanch, F. (2026). The civic form of water in Sierra Nevada: territory, memory and identity. ZARCH. Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Architecture and Urbanism, 26, 138-151. https://doi.org/10.26754/ojs_zarch/zarch.20262612307