Conservas Alfageme Vigo

Between Bouzas and Vigo

We are in the building complex of Conservas Alfageme, located in a street that connects the centre of Bouzas with the city of Vigo.

The canning factory includes a main building with three warehouses, a workshop warehouse, several storage warehouses and a tank at its northwest end. The owner’s residence can also be found in the complex, constructed in front of the storage warehouses and two other structures next to the residential building.

The proposal’s premise is based on understanding the socio-historical context of the town of Bouzas and its connection with the city of Vigo, rescuing the Alfageme cannery’s heritage to imbue it with a contemporary social space value as a focal point between the two cities.

The cannery building has therefore been maintained as a cultural facility, and the workshop warehouse has been adapted as a transition space between the cannery and the storage warehouses. The latter have been stripped to expose their original structure, acquiring the appearance of a “modern ruin”.

This entire large park area has likewise been extended vertically in a staggered manner to form the buildings for residential use. Two residential buildings that rescue the types of traditional housing of the sector.

The permeability of the complex aims to ensure that this new landmark becomes an intercommunicator rather than a self-enclosed isolated space, because the different uses proposed demand this.

Given that we are in a heritage value setting, the look and visual relationship with its immediate surroundings have been handled in a coherent manner.

In short, it is a proposal that seeks to enhance the value of pre-existing conditions, respecting its past and looking to the future, while creating a dynamic space that acts as a meeting point between Bouzas and Vigo.