PUBLIC DEFENCE – Ignacio Galán

“(Re)occupy the ruin. Unveiling the capacity of vernacular heritage for the regeneration of depopulated settlements in mountain territories under transformation. A study case of the Spanish Central Pyrenees.”

  • Date: 05 July 2024
  • Location: Sint-Lucas, Hoogstraat 51, 9000 Ghent, room 142
  • Timing: 2 p.m. CET

(Participants are welcome to visit the exhibition from 1.30 p.m.)

Abstract

Rural mountain territories in Europe, especially in the Spanish Pyrenees, have experienced large transformations in the last decades due to diverse external pressures and internal decline processes. In this shrinking region, the abandonment of traditional productive practices and the decrease in population within the local communities contrast with the growing demands for rural territories as resource providers, leisure locations, or crucial environmental enclaves.

Due to the decline of the local communities, many depopulated settlements can be detected in the mountain territory of the Spanish Central Pyrenees. The abandonment of territories entails a substantial cultural and environmental loss, while it also compromises the social and economic well-being of the remaining inhabitants and of its weakened territorial network. However, an increasing number of reoccupation experiences in formerly depopulated settlements can be identified. In these processes, former communities, tourists, public authorities, neo-rural newcomers, and non-human species are claiming and disputing these remaining spaces, transforming them according to their interests and means. Depending on how this process is developed, the complex recovery of depopulated settlements might generate constructive growth or negative displacement of local communities. It can also have positive or negative cultural, economic or environmental effects. Very different territorial challenges affect the areas where the re-occupied settlements are situated. This requires the exploration of distinct strategies that responsibly address the ongoing territorial issues of each location, where the well-being of local communities and their environment are the protagonists.

This research applies a socio-spatial methodology at multiple scales (territory, settlement, built space) in six selected study cases within the study area. Through a combination of spatial analysis, field observations and semi-structured interviews, the initial spatial conditions, as well as the interests and interventions developed by the diverse communities for the reuse of the depopulated settlements, are investigated. It scrutinises several aspects of the territory, such as the location of the settlement in relation to its functional territorial network or the use of the land in the surrounding areas. On the scale of the settlement, it analyses the use of the landscape resources and the spatial reorganisation of the settlement structure. Finally, at a built-space level, the reuse and adaptation of the remaining -tangible and intangible- rural heritage are explored.

This investigation reveals the changing conditions generated by the decline as a new opportunity to reclaim these discarded spaces differently. The heterogeneous locations (nearby, remote, isolated) and conditions (pressured, shrinking, depopulated) stimulate diverse approaches (recovering, reshaping, retaining) that contribute to enhancing the rich territorial diversity.
The successful re-occupation interventions by local communities identified in pioneer experiences, provide useful knowledge to develop strategies that can be reapplied, tackling the diverse territorial challenges affecting each area.

Throughout this research, rural vernacular heritage acquires a central position. It unveils its multiscalar and multidimensional nature, not only formed by small-scale buildings but also by the settlement and cultural landscape configuration, the use of the land, or the structure of the territory, as well as other intangible aspects like locally adapted knowledge or collective memories attached to those places. At the same time, the important agency of vernacular heritage is exposed, being able to re-establish a strong interaction with the existing or new communities while providing its diverse -formal, practical or emotional- capacities, which perform as catalysers for the regeneration of depopulated rural settlements.

Jury

Supervisors
Prof. dr. Yves Schoonjans (KU Leuven, supervisor)
Prof. dr. Gisèle Gantois (KU Leuven, co-supervisor)

Assessors
Prof. Ángel Comeras-Serrano (Universidad San Jorge)
Prof. dr. Bruno Notteboom (KU Leuven)
Prof. dr. Kris Scheerlinck (KU Leuven)

External members
Prof. dr. Hans Leinfelder (KU Leuven)
Prof. Kathrin Golda-Pongratz (UPC Universitat Politècnica Catalunya)

Chair
Prof. dr. Jo Van Den Berghe (KU Leuven)

Picture of the depopulated settlement of Otal, at the heart of Sobrepuerto, in the Spanish Pyrenees. The image shows smoke coming out of the chimney of Casa O’Royo, one of the last standing buildings, as a sign of human occupancy and activity. This space is used as a shelter by former inhabitants and hikers who temporarily return to Otal.
(Image Source: Aniz B. (2016). Piedras con alma. La despoblación en el Pirineo Aragonés. Prames)