Tudela-Culip Restoration Project in Cap de Creus by EMF and Ardèvol
Landscape architects EMF teamed up with architecture firm Ardèvol to remove over 400 buildings from a former holiday village in eastern Spain and transform the landscape into a series of meandering pathways and coastal viewpoints (+ movie).
![Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/05/dezeen_Tudela-Culip-Restoration-Project-by-EMF-and-Ardevol_2.jpg)
The Tudela-Culip (Club Med) resort at Cap de Creus in Cadaqués had been a holiday destination for 900 tourists every summer, but in 1998 the coastal site was given protected status as a Natural Park and the resort was forced to close its doors five years later.
![Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/05/dezeen_Tudela-Culip-Restoration-Project-by-EMF-and-Ardevol_3.jpg)
Working alongside over 50 specialist consultants, EMF and Ardèvol were able to deconstruct most of the buildings of the Tudela-Culip and restore the natural landscape amidst a series of architectural interventions.
![Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/05/dezeen_Tudela-Culip-Restoration-Project-by-EMF-and-Ardevol_1.jpg)
The most prominent addition to the site is the Cubes Viewpoint, a pair of Corten steel structures facing out to sea, while slabs of stone and more Corten steel were used to create seating areas and landmarks elsewhere around the park.
![Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/05/dezeen_Tudela-Culip-Restoration-Project-by-EMF-and-Ardevol_4.jpg)
Pathways are divided into a three-tier hierarchy. The main access road is laid in asphalt, secondary pathways are formed from concrete, and informal routes are defined by ankle-height metal railings.
![Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/05/dezeen_Tudela-Culip-Restoration-Project-by-EMF-and-Ardevol_5.jpg)
Small Corten panels scattered around the site feature cutaways that highlight how some of the natural rock formations resemble animals.
![Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/05/dezeen_Tudela-Culip-Restoration-Project-by-EMF-and-Ardevol_7.jpg)
The five-year-long project was completed in 2010, but recently received the Rosa Barba European Landscape Prize at the 7 European Biennial of Landscape Architecture.
![Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/05/dezeen_Tudela-Culip-Restoration-Project-by-EMF-and-Ardevol_6.jpg)
See more landscape architecture on Dezeen, including a colourful Copenhagen park by BIG and a staggered concrete square in Zaragoza, Spain.
![Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/05/dezeen_Tudela-Culip-Restoration-Project-by-EMF-and-Ardevol_8.jpg)
Photography is by Martí Franch, Pau Ardèvol and Esteve Bosc.
Read on for more details from the design team:
Tudela-Culip (Club Med) Restoration Project in the Natural Parc 'Cap de Creus'
This project is a showcase for landscape driven nature restoration projects. It turns a demolition order, a purely and strictly habitat reclamation, into a creative landscape restoration development. Through necessarily inexpensive actions, the design skilfully construes and orchestrates the deconstruction as a combination of destruction and construction to celebrate the site’s peculiarities, both natural and cultural. It proposes ways to choreograph on-site visitors into a narrative that stimulates the culture in nature in an innovative approach to finally question whether erasing and voiding is just as valid as filling in and adding.
![Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/05/dezeen_Tudela-Culip-Restoration-Project-by-EMF-and-Ardevol_9.jpg)
Location: Cap de Creus cape, Cadaqués, Catalunya, Spain
Area: 90 ha
Period of design: 2005-2007
Implementation period: 2009-2010
Landscape architects: EMF landscape architects - Martí Franch
Collaborators EMF: M. Batalla, M. Bianchi, A. Lopez, G. Batllori, L. Majer, C. Gomes M. Solé, L. Ochoa, J.L Campoy
Architects: J/T Ardèvol S.L. - Ton Ardèvol
Collaborators Ardèvols: Raul Lopez, Cristina Carmona.
![Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol Tudela-Culip Restoration Project by EMF and Ardèvol](https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2013/05/dezeen_Tudela-Culip-Restoration-Project-by-EMF-and-Ardevol_10.jpg)
Commissioned by: Ministerio de Medio Ambiente, Medio Rural y Marino. Generalitat de Catalunya. Gestora de runes de la construcció S.A. Parc Natural del Cap de Creus.
Construction companies:
Tragsa (deconstruction)
Control Demeter and Massachs Excavacions S.L.U. (deconstruction, waste management, Restoration and re-urbanization)
Jardinería Sant Narcís (invasive exotic flora extraction)
Serralleria Ferran Collel (viewpoints, totems, terciary path, animal rock identification)