We have been requested one tower and we have decided to do two. With a limited height of one hundred meters and an area of a thousand square meters per floor, the resulting slenderness would be approximately of 2,8 in the case of one tower, and it is evident that reducing the floor area to its half, the slenderness ratio drastically improves until reaching a ratio of 4. It is also evident that, floors of such a reduced area, five hundred square meters, cannot act independently and that they need to be connected. Hence the bridge between the towers. Finally the towers have turned out to be circular, which can only be explained as a consequence of the intuitive reason, which has its motives in architecture as well.
Having reached this point, the reason and the intuition have given way to reflection. Is it possible to edify in one of the mythical spaces of the humanity - at least of the Mediterranean culture – in a way so unconnected with the meaning of that place?
The Strait of Gibraltar is an impressive place with its two seas, two continents and two rocks, Europe and Africa. That the Gods had chosen it for their adventures and Hercules for his works cannot cause any surprise.
What is more surprising is that unlike the majority of mythical places, there are no remains – neither archaeological nor architectonic - of its grandeur and its past. Here, there are neither temples, nor lighthouses, nor theaters, not even foundations.
Whatever is the cause, and perhaps for this reason, time and absences have allowed the emergence of a dispersed industrial habitat made of factories, warehouses and above all, visible chimneys that go across the bay of Gibraltar to Algeciras throughout the coast.
Hercules decided to break through in his return from Tartessus - I believe - and leaning on the rocks of Gibraltar and Musa - the pillars - separated the continents, connected the seas and created the Strait. Since then, this place has been indicating the end of the sea - the non plus ultra -. Such a complexity of meanings - industrial and mythological - for such a beautiful place.
Two towers, two pillars, two chimneys are proposed then. An architecture creating an encounter between two meanings. Two towers - two pillars of concrete. The only industrial and therefore modern material with a meaning of permanence.
Two pillars - two towers raised with sliding formworks of industrial origin - warehouses - artisanal polystyrene molds – letters - arranged according to a calligraphic code of mythological origin that indicate to us that there is nothing beyond.
Finally, two towers, two industrial concrete pillars, meticulously calligraphed which literally speak of the myth and the typical invariants of the local architecture and their archetypes: the light, the white color and the shade. Especially the shade, because its indescribable and cosy protection makes virtually unnecessary any gadget with environmental pretensions.
