Tobi Phillimore

THESIS

Ávila is raised from an abundance of granite whilst at its western extremity, alluvial clay deposits from the Río de Adaja bank and settle. The Adaja, inscribes the Valle de Amblés, a fertile agricultural plain situated in the Sistema Central between the Sierra de Ávila and Sierra de la Paramera. It feeds the city, irrigating its crops and in earlier years, powering its mills.

The casting of grounded bedrock and existing granite husks of former industry provides a singular geology from which an unconformity of new architectures, The Ávila Geological Survey, accumulates on the eastern bank of the river beyond the city walls. The Unconformity is the contact between these husks and re-seeded armatures transposed from the Archive of Theatre and Stone - an architecture of erratic projection that transcribed the distinctive masonry of Ávila’s cathedral into the ruined housing of a former hotel towards a theatrical complex of counterweighted granite, elevated wooden stage, bridge, walkway, tower and wall.

The re-inhabited husks allow for the sampling, testing, and archiving of geologic material in laboratories and testing facilities. Above these enclosed programs, a passive observation is witnessed from a reticulating overlap of foyers, amenities, and walkways. Beyond, a landscape formation is carved out of alluvial clay, exposing a buried strata of granite in the form of terraced plains and retaining elements - an exterior expression of the geologic archive, allowing an experiential interaction with materials collected from the Valle de Amblés and its mountainous boundaries.