Architectures for Ávila: the sierra, the plateau and the walled city.

Scapeland Ávila is a study in isolation and resilience. A 10th century walled city high above a fertile plain and enclosed by mountains takes on the character of an island where particularity and resourcefulness prevail in the face of climatic extremes: drought, flood and snow. Architectures for Ávilademand a material and spatial specificity born of tradition and proximity: granite, walnut, oak, limestone, thick walls, shaded cloisters tempered by spring water.

In an inversion of architectural convention, the inevitable trajectory of the gigantic to the miniature, Scapeland Ávila begins with resolution in detail, a seed architecture for the walled city offered to the greater landscape. Terms of stewardship – garden, gate and field – are nurtured within the grain of the city to intuit extraordinary proposals for the uncertain terrain beyond its walls as a response to desertification, depopulation and the failure of an industrialised landscape.