Fabia Sainz Fernandez - Mountain Nomads

Mountain Nomads

Revitalizing the rural identity of Asturias

A reimagining of the Quintana farm as a public and inclusive landscape

Fabia Sainz Fernandez

“Digame usted ahora si sobre la tierra un edificio tan sencillo, tan barato y tan bien ideado; un edificio que sirva a un mismo tiempo de granero, despensa, dormitorio, colmenar y palomar; sin embargo, de ser tan pequeno; un edificio que reune las mejores cualidades que puedan apetecerse para cada uno de estos usos, y en fin, un edificio en que la forma, la materia, la composicion y descomposicion, la firmeza, la movilidad sean tan admirables como sus usos, y entonces me disculpara de que haya emplado en un objeto tan sencillo tantas reflexiones”.

“May you tell me of a simpler, cheaper and greater ideated building on the land; a building used as barn, pantry, sleeping room, apiary or dovecote; however, a building that collects all the best qualities available, a building whose form, materiality, composition and decomposition, and mobility are as admirable as its fuction, therefore, my apologies for having invested in such humble object so many of my wonders’ Jovellanos1, Personal diary, 26 July 1792, San Juan de Pinera (Cudillero)

1 Gaspar

was a Spanish neoclassical statesman, author, philosopher and a major figure during the Age of Enlightenment in Spain.

Prologue

The horreo, an architectural fascination

There is something mystical about mountains. The proportions, scale, and grandeur do not leave one indifferent. In the North of the Iberian Peninsula, long bridges of mountain ranges spread over the region from the depths of the Peninsula to the shore. The lands, mostly on steep slopes are made of quartzite, limestone, and marl, making an intricate pattern for farmers to grow diverse crops. Shepherds, on the other hand, surf along the hillsides followed by or following sheep, goats, and some adventurous cows. On the other hand, grey and humid weather, accompanied by the proximity to the Cantabrian Sea, molds these sierras into lush green paradises, and extensive cliff forests. This complex landscape entails the appearance of a unique piece of architecture, a small and iconic structure: the hórreos.

From a humble beginning, the hórreo, a vernacular barn-type structure raised from the ground, emerged as a need for storing goods, away from the humid grounds and small rodents or curious creatures. The structure is sophisticated and unique to this building, which is demountable. This characteristic gives this solid barn the possibility of mobility around the farmlands. Hórreos have an extensive and regionally unique vocabulary, an almost impossible-to-translate riddle associated with their different constructive and structural parts as well as its social significance.

This project started through the fascination with this specific building type in the area of Asturias, a northern region of Spain. In order to bring awareness about this building, its heritage, and its circular attributes, I researched, evaluated, and dissected each architectural element that composes this barn (architectural, enviromental and social). Each element, with its appropriate vernacular name, composition, and design is analyzed and observed from an architectural and socio-economical point of view. The study is divided into four parts: the Site, the Foundation, the Body, and the Roof.

The ambition to bring the hórreo to a contemporary architectural setting evolved into the master thesis ‘Mountain Nomads’which is a project that explores the possibilities of creating a public farm system that reintroduces the traditional rural relationship between people and landscape through a series of architectural interventions.

revitalizing the rural identity of Asturias a reimagining of the Quintana as a public and inclusive landscape

Asturias has long been defined by its rural identity, where the mountains, valleys, and coastline shape a way of life deeply tied to the land and tradition. Farming, livestock, and a strong sense of community sustain not only the economy but also cultural practices, gastronomy, and festivals that preserve a unique heritage in modern times.

Central to Asturias’ rural landscape is the Quintana, an autonomous farm complex integrating land, home, and auxiliary buildings such as the hórreo, a moveable wooden barn raised above ground unique to the region. Once vital to local life, these farms are endangered by rural exodus, aging population, and urban migration of younger generations, specially women, towards better opportunities. Increasingly Quintanas are abandoned, sold or converted into seasonal retreats, severing their agricultural and cultural ties to the rural community.

This project intervenes at a critical moment, when urban exodus and migration to the countryside has become popular after the post-epidemic era. Under this circumstance, specially with the emergence of the digital nomads and neo-rural communities, a new farm typology may be able to provide the answer to revitalize the rural landscape.

The new Quintana dismantles the enclosed, private nature of traditional farms and proposes a deconstructed, public system of architectural interventions across the farmland, some embedded, some moveable, inviting relationships between people, landscape and place. These elements are designed to be used and maintained collectively, fostering interaction between locals, newcomers, and visitors.

Mountain nomads reclaims this rural landscape not as a relic of the past, but as a living space for cultural exchange, education, and renewed identity.

Asturias

Home as landscape

Asturias, located in northern Spain, is characterised by its rough geography which isolated the region from the rest of the Iberian Peninsula, propelling unique and rich rural traditions, only disrupted by the Camino the Santiago pilgrimage paths. This millennial path has been the main crossover along the rural landscape of Asturias, connecting small villages to the world through land.

In contrast, the Cantabrian Sea, connected to the Atlantic Ocean, opened Asturias to the wider world. Its coastline is rugged, lined with cliffs, while the climate is humid and wet, with long rainy seasons softened by mild temperatures. The valleys became natural “oases” where small villages and eventually larger towns and cities flourish.

“Asturias, si yo pudiera, si yo supiera cantarte... Asturias verde de montes y negra de minerales.”

“Asturias, if I could, if I knew how to sing to you... Asturias green with mountains and black with minerals.”

Pedro Garfias - Asturias (1937)

Map of Spain highlighted the region of Asturias

Asturias

Home as landscape

Asturias has a strong and rich landscape, from mountain ranges to short coastlines to soft meadows. Approximately 30% to 35% of Asturias’ territory is under some form of environmental or landscape protection, making of this region one of the greenest of Spain and with most forest density.

Traditional livestock farming dominates the agricultural economy, particularly cattle raising for both dairy and meat production. The landscape is punctuated by thousands of iconic hórreos, serving as symbols of the region’s agricultural heritage while protecting harvested crops from the persistent moisture. Apple orchards for cider production cover much of the cultivated land, alongside small-scale cultivation of traditional crops like spelt wheat, beans, and chestnuts.

The agricultural system follows ancient patterns of transhumance, where livestock moves seasonally between valley floors in winter and high mountain pastures during summer months, creating a sustainable relationship between farming practices and the dramatic topographical variations.

APPLE ORCHRID

APPLE ORCHRID

FOREST DENSITY

Agricultural exploitation, greenhouses, vineyards, and apple orchards

AGRICULTURAL EXPLOITATION

Asturias

Home as landscape

This region presents a concentrated urban triangle centered around its three principal cities: Oviedo, the inland capital renowned for its medieval architecture and Pre-Romanesque monuments; Gijón, the largest coastal city with expansive beaches and port facilities; and Avilés, the industrial hub with its historic estuary and port.

The region’s industrial landscape tells the story of Spain’s most intensive coal and steel production, with the Central and Western Asturian mining basins having dominated the economy for over a century until the final mine closures in 2018-2019. The industrial heritage remains visible through preserved mining villages and some existing structures that remain part of a forgotten landscape.

The influence of the mining in Asturias has shifted the culture from an agrarian society to an industrial one. The once farmers moved to factories, coal or steel, to find job opportunities and better lifestyles. However, the poor conditions and long shifts, made the miners a figure of endurance and nationalism. They become the hero’s of the labor class, who represented the vast majority of the population. The Quintana started to vanish since the time for maintenance became scarce. Slowly, people started to move to the main cities, abandoning the country side. The mines and industry infrastructure are still very present, even if some unused. The train tracks, the roads and even the ‘Camino de Santiago’ intertwine among the valleys making of rural and industry one.

Location map of the population density in Asturias mainly focused around the cities of Aviles, Oviedo, Gijon, and Mieres, knows as the ‘Y’

POPULATION DENSITY

TRAIN TRACKS

Overview of the train and main road connections

The countryside of Asturias a relationship between agriculture and industry

OVIEDO

Transition of landscapes, Oviedo from the sky

Asturias

The Camino de Santiago, a vast network of pilgrimage routes leading to the shrine of Saint James in Santiago de Compostela, has for centuries served as both a spiritual journey and a powerful social and cultural force across the Iberian Peninsula. Originating in the early 9th century after the supposed discovery of Saint James’ tomb, the Camino rapidly became one of the most significant pilgrimage routes in medieval Europe. Along its paths, communal practices flourished, with pilgrims depending on monasteries, hospices, and local communities for shelter, food, and guidance.

Key to the Camino’s endurance were albergues (pilgrim hostels), often run by religious orders or local confraternities, where pilgrims shared sleeping quarters and meals in a spirit of humility and fraternity. Churches, plazas, and hospitales de peregrinos were essential communal sites, offering not just spiritual aid, but also practical support and social interaction. Villagers often played an active role, forming brotherhoods and support networks to assist travellers and maintain sections of the path.

Asturias hosts two historic routes of the Camino: the Camino Primitivo (the Original Way) and the Camino del Norte (the Northern Way). The Camino Primitivo, believed to be the first route taken by King Alfonso II in the 9th century, begins in Oviedo and winds through the mountainous interior. The Camino del Norte, hugging the dramatic Cantabrian coast, passes through towns like Llanes, Guimaran, and Avilés. Both paths are notable for their challenging terrain and stunning natural landscapes, which shaped the rhythm and resilience of pilgrim life in Asturias.

In the Asturian section, communal traditions remained strong: pilgrims were often housed in repurposed barns (hórreos), village schools, or by local families who opened their homes as “hospitaleros voluntarios” (voluntary hosts). Many Asturian towns developed “prazas del peregrino” (pilgrim squares) where travellers could rest, reflect, or engage with locals during festivals or communal meals.

The public space that came into life through “the Camino” paved away for a symbiotic relationship between the pilgrims and locals, merging different cultures and influences. The rural world of Asturias became global.

Asturias

The rural culture

The Asturian countryside, marked by its green valleys, terraced hillsides, and scattered hamlets, has long been shaped by deeply rooted communal practices that reflect a balance between human settlement and the natural environment. Traditionally, rural communities operated on cooperative land use systems, particularly around brañas (mountain pastures), where cattle and sheep from multiple families grazed together in summer months. These areas were managed collectively, with roles and maintenance duties rotating among the households in what was known as Andecha, a system of communal labor for maintaining roads, pastures, irrigation ditches, and even chapels.

Many villages also maintained communal granaries, mills, and threshing floors (eras) flat, stone-paved spaces where families threshed grain together, often timed with festivals and reciprocal labor arrangements. Washing houses (lavaderos) were another cornerstone of community life, typically located near streams or springs, where women gathered to do laundry and exchange news. In more isolated areas, communal ovens (caleros) allowed multiple families to bake bread on a shared schedule, especially during winter or festival times.

Andecha

The rural culture ‘Group of people who do the same work on a farm: mowing, weeding, collecting spelt. Gathering of people who, in a festive tone, gather wheat in a farmland.

Group of people who gathered to work the same land or meadow, to separate the ears of wheat. Neighborhood meeting to help each other with something.

Free agricultural work carried out by several people or neighbors on behalf of another with no other remuneration than food.’

Neighbors would come together to work on the land, helping each other to sustain life. After the help, they will share part of the harvest, or they would help on the next task requested by another neighbor. This activity created a strong bond between the community, focusing on communal work instead of individualism.

“Antes ibas a la andecha a sayar es a limpiar las malas hierbas de fabes y del maíz y todo. Y lo hacías, ibas caminando y llegabas a la tierra, te llevaba una hora.

Lo que te tendría que llevar 10 minutos, te llevaba una hora porque te encontrabas aquí a unos trabajando, allí a otros y con todos parabas y con todos podías hablar y había tiempo para todo.

Sí, había tiempo para todo.”

“Before, you used to go ‘sayar’(weeding). ‘Sayar’ means clearing the weeds from the fabes and the corn and everything. And you did it, you walked and you got to the land, it took you an hour.

What should have taken you 10 minutes took you an hour because you found some people working here, others there, and you stopped with everyone and you could talk with everyone, and there was time for everyone.

Yes, there was time for everything.”

Conchita de Casa Bernabel

Sestaferia

The rural culture

Friday’s fair

‘Periodic and neighborhood meetings of immemorial custom and never interrupted to repair public roads, keep them in good condition, and rebuild those that the public interest demands.’

The informal paths and infrastructure found in the rural Asturias was maintained by the community. This rules are still present in some small villages, where their community gathers periodically to repair, clean and maintain the bridges and paths. Sometimes it could be a stone that fell, others a tree, others weeds overgrowing the paths.

“Esas labores colectivas como las que te digo, la sestaferia o la matanza o lo que podría ser también las andechas para arreglar los caminos. Pues eso se ha ido o el a la hierba se ha ido perdiendo por la mecanización y por un trabajo quizás más individualista.”

“Those collective tasks like the ones I’m talking about, the harvesting or the slaughtering, or what could also be the long walks to repair the roads. Well, that’s gone, or the work on the grass has been lost due to mechanization and perhaps more individualistic work.”

Amelia, former mayor of Guimarán

Esfoyaza

The rural culture

Esfoyaza, or ‘Corn harvest’

‘an Asturian tradition and celebration involving the communal process of “esfoyar”, which means peeling the leaves off corn cobs to prepare them for storage, often taking place in autumn after the harvest. ’

People of all ages, from elders to children, would gather beneath the hórreo to help with the corn harvest. Corn gained popularity in Asturias after the introduction of the ‘Three Sisters’ agricultural system from the Americas, which refers to the multiculture crop of corn, beans, and pumpkins. One key reason for its widespread popularity was that it was easier to grow and could be used to feed livestock. In Asturias, corn was also used to produce corn flour, a staple of the region’s traditional rural cuisine. Over time, however, corn production became more and more industrialized and focused primarily on food for animals. As a result, it has become a monoculture crop, an unsustainable form of agriculture.

“Otra labor colectiva que también se hacía era pues la esfoyaza, ¿no? El recoger el trigo de las pomaradas y el juntarse pues para pelar el trigo en un horreo o yagar.”

“Another collective task that was also carried out was the esfoyaza, right? Gathering the wheat from the orchards and getting together to peel the wheat in a granary or yagar.”

Amelia, former mayor of Guimarán

The Horreo

A mountain nomad

This small building, a barn, is a part of an architectural structure and framework spread among the Northen region of the Iberian Peninsula.

Fading away due to industralization and rural exodus, a pandemic that affects many areas of rural Spain.

Its simple design and construction has a direct relationship with its environment, especially the landscape.

The horreo is an architecture project, with a strong contextual understanding, material composition and attention to detail.

The horreo is part of the rural network of the farmscape of Asturias. In order to be, it must be part of a production land with a farm house. This triangular relationship between landscape, society and the barn makes the assignment an interesting riddle about how to make this traditional and rural framework relevant today’s society.

The challenge is the role of the architect and designer, which must position herself on a boundary that expresses a particular desire on how to develop the project:

Innovation or preservation?

Will a contemporary world embrace such typology?

“Mi padre gustaba tanto el horreo que después ya cuando ya era mayor él y todo, los días de lluvia o días que hacía mucho aire, pues iba a dormir a el horreo porque decía que le encantaba estar sintiendo el llover y el aire.”

“My father liked the horreo so much that later, when he was older and everything, on rainy days or days when it was very windy, he would go to sleep in the horreo because he said he loved feeling the rain and the air.

Conchita de Casa Bernabel

Bocateja

7. Colondra 4. Viguetas

7. Colondra 4. Viguetas

8. Sobrelinio

8. Sobrelinio

10. Cabezuelas

10. Cabezuelas 13. Pontes

13. Pontes

14. Muela 11. Tentemozo 9. Aguilon

14. Muela 11. Tentemozo 9. Aguilon

15. Pegollos 12. Trebes

15. Pegollos 12. Trebes

16. Pilpayo

16. Pilpayo

17. Tenovia

17. Tenovia

18. Subidera

18. Subidera

1.- The decorative crowning element placed at the peak of the hórreo's roof.

2. - The principal rafters that form the main structural framework supporting the roof covering.

3.- Type of joinery used to secure joints between timber elements without metal fasteners.

4.- The secondary roof beams that support the roof covering.

5.- The special curved tiles placed at the roof's edge to provide weather protection.

6.- The horizontal wooden planks that form the exterior wall cladding of the hórreo's storage chamber.

7. - The vertical exterior walls of the storage chamber, set as vertical wall planks

8. - The upper horizontal beam that caps the wall planking and supports the roof structure.

9. - The triangular gable end walls that close the structure at each end of the hórreo.

10. - The decorative round stones on the pillars

11. - The diagonal bracing timbers that provide structural stability.

12. - The wooden crossbeams or tie beams that connect opposite walls.

13. - The horizontal supporting beams that span between the stone pillars to carry the floor structure.

14. - The large cylindrical stone slab that connects the base to the support beams (pegollos)

15. - The wooden or stone pillars used as base support.

16. - The slab/base stone that the pegollo stands on.

17. - The wooden latch or closing mechanism that secures the pilpayo door.

18. - The stone or wooden steps used to access the entrance.

The Horreo, study sketches, structure and atmosphere

The Horreo,, details and settings

Details over time, transformation and repair

The Quintana

An Asturian farm typology

‘An economic and family exploitation unit made up of dissociated elements, both in terms of their nature - house, antuzano, annexed buildings and complementary constructions, granaries or paneras, orchards, land, meadows, mountains, trees, animals, machinery and implements of farming, and exploitation rights in communal goods—as well as its system of private property, in rent or sharecropping—, its dispersed location and its destination or use—cultivation, harvest, pasture—that form an agricultural complex capable of to support a farming family, without prejudice to the fact that it may have other complementary sources of income.’

The Asturian Quintana farm or Casería house is built from local materials like stone and wood, often featuring a covered balcony and slate roof. The central feature is the hórreo or panera, a raised granary used to store grain and keep it safe from moisture and pests. The sheds, stables and other structures followed attached almost to one another, making the transition from building to building easy and dry (during the rainy seasons).

These buildings are arranged around an open courtyard which connects The system of the open Quintana allows the collaboration of the neighbouring farmers, who gather together several times of the year to help each other for harvest, maintenance and celebrations. In current times, the Quintanas are disappearing, becoming housing plots for villas with swimming pools and barbecue huts.

The activities that surrounded the rural lifestyle of Asturias built a community based on trust, knowledge, and resources. The contemporary privatized rigid landscape is segmented by property lines made of stone, metal and brick. The communal architecture that once served, such as fountains, ovens, bridges, wash fountains, as a central point for social interaction have disappeared. These vernacular elements are melting in the landscape, dissolving in the earth and stone.

This project proposal is to open Quintana farms, breaking the barrier and to allow the outside world to become again part of the Asturian landscape, integrating architecture, landscape and tradition.

Asturias

The timeline of a landscape and culture

INFLUX OF NATIVE AMERICAN GOODS AND METHODS + MODERN COLONIALISM

Pre-Roman Period

There is architectural evidence of the tradition of building horreos in pre-roman times.

Discovery of the grave of Santiago & the start of the Camino de Santiago de Compostela pilgrimage in Oviedo

MIDDLE AGES

13th century

First document containing an image of an horreo in the Cantigas de Santa Maria by Alfonso X “El Sabio”

15th century

First documented horreo in Asturias

1770

First coal mine opens in Langreo

WEALTHY IMMIGRATION returning from America

INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION

intensive industrialization + mining

SPANISH CIVIL WAR

±1900

Estimated start of the Rural Exodus trend

1950

Intensification of the Rural Exodus trend a ter the civil war

VILLAVICIOSA

de-industrialization

1970’s

Economical restructuring & coal industry crisis

MIERES

2018

EXODUS TO MEGA METROPOLIS

Closing of the last coal mine in San Martin del Rey Aurelio

2019

Covid-19 starts and speeds up digitalization

opportunity window satelite work flow + return to rural

URBAN EXODUS TO COUNTRYSIDE

2022

Covid-19 ends working from home Neo-rurals

INTERNATIONAL INCOMERS

Rural exodus

Where did the farmers go?

The rural exodus that swept through Asturias during the mid-20th century represents one of the most profound demographic transformations in Spanish regional history, fundamentally altering the social and economic fabric of mountain communities like Guimarán. This process began in earnest during the 1940s when traditional agriculture came under severe pressure from European market integration. The mountainous terrain of Asturias prevented local farmers from implementing modern agricultural techniques, leading to a dramatic decline in farming viability and initiating the first wave of population loss.

The exodus intensified during the 1960s and 1970s when Asturias’ coal mining industry, entered a severe crisis. The Franco regime’s 1959 Stabilization Plan opened the Spanish economy to foreign competition, while simultaneously promoting policies that prioritized industrialization and urbanization over rural development.

Today, Asturias has one of the fastest aging populations and lowest birth rates in Europe, with the rural exodus having transformed once-thriving agricultural and mining communities like Guimarán into symbols of Spain’s “empty countryside”, where nature gradually reclaims abandoned buildings and traditional ways of life survive only in the memories of the remaining inhabitants.

“...el éxodo que en su día hubo de gente, pues eh... fueron personas que a lo mejor pues por razones de trabajo o de estudios tuvieron que irse fuera y no volvieron.”

“The exodus of people that once occurred,... they were people who perhaps had to leave for work or study opportunities and never returned.”

Amelia, former mayor of Guimarán

“Porque mira el campo para gente es una cárcel también.”

“Because look, the countryside is a prison too, right?”

Conchita de Casa Bernabel

“Que al final los jóvenes se van. Qué van a hacer aquí? Aquí no hacen nada.”

“In the end, the young people leave. What are they going to do here? They don’t have anything here.”

Pepe del Estanco

Urban exodus Who is coming back?

People leaving cities and returning to rural villages, driven by factors like remote work, lower living costs, and a desire for a better quality of life. This movement is helping to repopulate areas that were previously abandoned due to earlier rural depopulation, but often come with the practise of moving into an area without integrating and adopting the local traditions and knowledge. In worst case scenarios, modern villas replace meadows and old stone houses, Airbnb and summer houses replace the community once was part of the rural network of Asturian countryside.

The local beauty slowly fades away. The activities that in the past joined the community to coexist in open lands is replaced by fences and walls, leaving the experience of walking down the countryside as a suburbian scene, guided by paved roads, concrete and cars.

Is there an alternative? Is it possible to comeback, without forgetting our roots on the way?

“Al final la gente solo va a vivir aquí. O sea, lo que estaba diciendo Conchita, que van a van a dividir esa esa parcela y, a la chalés y ya está.

Y la cultura. Eso desaparece. Eso desaparece totalmente. Eso desaparece totalmente. En cultura nada, desaparece totalmente. Está la gente muy equivocada en eso.”

“In the end, people are just going to just live here. Look at what Conchita was saying: they’re going to divide that plot and make chalets, and that’s it.

And culture then disappears completely. Nothing in culture, it disappears completely, nothing. People are very wrong about this.”

Pepe del Estanco

+5 fotos 9 Fotos

Calcula tu hipoteca Sugerir precio

ht ps:/ www fo ocasa es/es/comprar/vivienda/carreno/calefaccion

3 habs. 2 baños 90 m² 1250 m² terreno

Casa o chalet en venta en Carreño - Guimaran, Carreño

Carreño

Próxima construcción de chalets independientes en el concejo de Carreño, concretamente en Guimaran. Construidos sobre parcelas de más de 1000m2 y orientación sur. Se pueden hacer modificaciones sobre plano. Situación inmejorable, a 6 KM de la playa Perlora y Candás, a 10Km del centro de Gijón, a 12 KM de Avilés . Nuestras construcciones gozan de la ultima tecnología en construcción. Enconfrado con Poliestireno Ensanchado relleno hormigón, que mejora el aislamiento Térmico y Acústico de la vivienda. Mejorar el consumo y el ahorro energético que proporciona nuestras construcciones. Nuestros chalets con aerotermia en suministro de agua caliente y suelo radiante, mejora el confort de nuestras viviendas. Como parte opcional, podemos incorporar Recuperadores de calor para mantener una calidad de aire óptima en nuestras viviendas, sin necesidad de abrir las ventanas. Garaje opcional, elegido según las necesidades de nuestros clientes.

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OBJETIVO VENTA Referencia: 1067864

Tipo de inmueble Casa o chalet Orientación Noreste

Consumo energía 999 kW h m² / año Emisiones 999 kg CO m² / año

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Calefacción Gres Cerámica

Estado Casi nuevo

Traditional Quintanas are being sold, the plot is subdivided and developed, cheap and mass produced housing is invading rural towns, becoming suburbia 297.500 €

Carreño

The heart of the triangle

The “Metropolitan’ area of Asturias, the ‘Y’. The inbetween space, rural or urban, where both worlds collide. Carreño, the region of valleys, where the ‘Camino de Santiago’ passes by and the farms stand still.

scale 1 : 50.000

The

landscape, industrial

The

landscape, agricultural

The valley

Guimarán

Rural

auxiliar architecture

Guimarán has historically centered its communal life around agricultural and religious traditions, with deep-rooted practices reflecting the cooperative nature of rural Asturian society. One of the most notable communal features is the “campo de la iglesia”, the churchyard or common ground surrounding the Sanctuary of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios. This space has long served not just as a religious center, but also as a site for festivals, gatherings, and communal decisions, particularly during the annual pilgrimage and feast days during the month of September.

Historically, Guimarán had brañas and pasture commons in the surrounding hills, where livestock was grazed collectively. These highland meadows required coordinated seasonal use, and villagers organized themselves in veceras (rotating duties) to manage herding and maintenance of fences and water sources. Such shared labor extended to irrigation channels and eras (threshing floors), flat communal spaces used during harvest time for grain processing. These eras were typically located on the edges of fields and were maintained collectively by the parish’s households.

Additionally, traditional lavaderos (washing places) and caleros (communal ovens) were vital social hubs, especially for women. These spots were used not only for daily chores but also as centers for informal communication, storytelling, and the transmission of oral traditions. Over time, while many of these communal areas fell into disuse due to modernization and rural depopulation, some have been preserved or restored as part of heritage initiatives aimed at revitalizing Guimarán’s cultural identity and fostering community bonds, but their function as social gathering spaces has disappeared over time.

A collection of rural auxiliar architecture and elements that contribute to the rural communal activities and vernacular architecture composition

Guimarán

The valley infrastructure and rural auxiliar architecture

local/regional roads

National road

train tracks

GUIMARAN

Concrete factory

AREO MOUNTAIN

Metal factory Arcelormittal

Electrical facility

Guimarán

Rural auxiliar architecture

“Ojalá volviesen esos espacios comunitarios y esos puntos de encuentro.

Pues cuando desaparecen esos puntos de encuentro, digamos que la ciudadanía queda un poco pues descolocada y no sabe dónde poder ir o dónde poder participar.

Porque cuando desaparecieron, como te decía, las tiendas bar y esos chigres de toda la vida, pues la socialización de las personas al final era un poco pues como que no tenían esos espacios comunes, ¿no?

Porque también anteriormente los hornos, las fuentes y lavaderos eran también puntos de encuentro donde la gente se veía, hablaba y se ponía al día”

“I wish those community spaces and meeting points would return.

Well, when those meeting points disappear, let’s say that citizens are left a bit disoriented and don’t know where to go or where to participate.

Because when they disappeared, as I was saying, the bars and those traditional taverns, well, people’s socialization ended up being a bit like they didn’t have those common spaces, right? Because previously, the ovens, fountains, and laundry areas were also meeting points where people met, talked, and caught up.”

Amelia, former mayor of Guimarán

Guimarán

Community and landscape, the village

A small village gathers in the middle of the Guimarán Valley, the land is covered with Quintanas. A tight community survives the urban exodus. I wander around the road, trying to get a peak inside the landscape. Few people opened their home to me. The few, discussed with passion their love for the land, their culture and how the passing of time has change the rural scape. Connected by time and neighbouring land, I talked with Pepe and Conchita, a retired steelworker, and a milk farmer. Both related by a long family friendship. I also met Amelia, former mayor, who developed the community center by the school and bar of the village, longing for recreating the social engagement that once lived in Guimarán.

Their thoughts and conversations are gathered among the book, as a reflection that guided me to understand and relate to Asturias, its people and their relationship with the landscape.

“Antes ibas caminando y llegabas a la tierra, te llevaba una hora volver.

Lo que te tendría que llevar 10 minutos, te llevaba una hora porque te encontrabas aquí a unos trabajando, allí a otros y con todos parabas y con todos podías hablar y había tiempo para todo. Ya nadie se encuentra en e

Sí, había tiempo para todo. Ya nadie se encuentra en el campo.”

“Before, you would walk to get to the land, it would take you an hour to get back.

What should have taken you 10 minutes took you an hour because you found some people working here, others there, and you’d have stopped with everyone and you could talk with everyone, and there was time for everyone.

Yes, there was time for everything. No one meets anyone in the fields anymore.”

Conchita de Casa Bernabel

The landscape

In

Guimarán The community

In red, the site location to develop the thesis, the exisitng community infrastructure

Mountain nomads

The New Quintana

The New Quintana

Shifting the ecosystem

Changing the Quintana concept is a challenge, conceptually and socially. This farming system has been engraved in the Asturias ecosystem, making any change a conflict. However, a static behaviour is causing the failure of the existence of this farm typology. The lack of commitment from new residents and the aging of the older generations is creating a gap. As a counterpoint, creating a public space, based on a Quintana morphology, could open this type of landscape to a broader public. The local residents, can visit and share their knowledge, visitors can participate on farming activities, pilgrims can find rest, and in return they can help in the maintenance of the farm.

The first instance to make this Quintana different, is to propose the dismantling of the buildings, based on function and construction composition. The farm house, where the ‘farmer in residency’, pilgrims and visitors have a space to stay, and gather for social events, is embedded in the landscape. The hórreo will become an roof structure, a semi-nomadic structure, where transhumance animals, pilgrims, community, and harvest can collide. This will be located in the hart of the site, where the an informal path made by shepherds exists. This path is the limit of the agrarian area if the farm. Following this, the meadows open up to reach the river, which can be crossed by a nomadic bridge, which expands and moves along the site, depending on the rain and the shifting of the river. Lastly, a chairlike structure gets lost in the meadows where a moment of solitude can be found. Exploding the Quintana system is an exercise to explore the farm, crossing the landscape and creating new informal paths that connect the community, the Santiago path and the shepherds.

built environment - embeded

agriculture - semi-nomad

meadows - nomad

Introducing the Mountain Nomads

The New path

Connecting the community through landscape

The Community path, following the River Merún, crossing from the church to the school, joining the old and new generations

The Santiago’s path, expanding the exisitng Camino, opening the heart of the Quintana to the public, joining the locals with the visitors

The New Quintana

The Path

the cows route

the farmer route the pilgrim route

Mountain nomads

The House

The House

I notice this farm does not sit by the edge of the road. It is made of stone and concrete, with a shiny metal roof.

I approach slowly, walking down the hill until I encounter the wooden doors. Before I can enter, I step into a rounded stone, weathered by the water. I see a sink; I wash my dirty boots. It has been raining.

The next step is a floating wooden plank, I push before me, the two-story doors slide. The hearth of the space is sunk on the floor; some people are gathered by the fire.

The chimney is floating in the middle of the space; it is as high as the one I saw in the factories on my way here.

I have been walking for days. I notice on my right a small door. It is the farmer’s house.

On my left, a bigger door opens to a workshop space full of tools and people, they are building something, and curios, I come in. The double height ceilings are not overwhelming, the wooden gallery on the upper floor brings warmth to the space.

I see a couch and a little kitchen; someone is already making dinner. Upstairs, on the wooden box, some people are sleeping already.

I need to finish my book, so I walk towards the little windows in the corridor, and I sit, alone, looking to the landscape.

Asturias is right in front of me.

“Porque cuando desaparecieron, como te decía, las tiendas bar y esos chigres de toda la vida, pues la socialización de las personas al final era un poco pues como que no tenían esos espacios comunes, ¿no?

Porque también anteriormente los hornos, las fuentes y lavaderos eran también puntos de encuentro donde la gente se veía, hablaba y se ponía al día.”

“Because when they disappeared, as I was saying, the bars and those traditional taverns, well, people’s socialization ended up being a bit like they didn’t have those common spaces, right?

Because previously, the ovens, fountains, and laundry areas were also meeting points where people met, talked, and caught up.”

Amelia la Alcalde

The House, section through the heart and landscape, the gate to the New Quintana

The ground level holds the hearth, where the farmer and the pilgrims to come together

On the left, the pilgrims; on the right, the farmer in residence

The upper level is for rest, a space for tranquility, wooden walls embrace the space

Section through the home, a house within a house, the horreo inside the home

Section through the atelier, the place to share and create, to gather together

The House

After a long walk, I stopped and looked ahead, a wooden gate and a steel roof guided me, framing the view of the New Quintana

Mountain nomads

The Roof

The Roof

The corn fields have grown tall.

I see a roof beyond, floating over them. I follow concrete floating stairs, almost on a leap of faith from the wooden balcony of the house I step on the first thread.

I come down and I follow the trail of earth that guides me to the fields. The roof pavilion opens before me. It starts raining, I look for refuge.

The fountain in the middle has a step. I pull down the chain to close the roof skylight, the fountain is full of water, and I wash my hands. I took a ladder, and I arrive to the platform where I can rest.

Already harvest season has started, I can see some corncobs tied to the roof, it blocks the wind and rain from entering inside. The platform follows the circular shape of the pavilion, but the pillars that hold it become taller or shorter, depending on the slope of the field, I sit at the highest point.

I hear a noise, a curios cow has come inside as well, looking for shelter

“Mi padre le gustaba tanto que después ya cuando ya era mayor él y todo, los días de lluvia o días que hacía mucho aire, pues iba a dormir a la panera porque decía que le encantaba estar sintiendo el llover y el aire.”

“My father liked it so much that later, when he was older and everything, on rainy days or days when it was very windy, he would go to sleep in the Panera because he said he loved feeling the rain and the air.”

Conchita de Casa Bernabel

The Roof pavilion gathers under the elements, few cows may look for water or shade, corn dries hanging on its roof, pilgrims rest

While it rains, the roof may open to gather some rain water, pulling the stones in balance, until the fountain gets full

I continued walking by the fields, until I encountered a roof. It had a fountain, I washed my face and wet my neck. It was a warm day. I sat with my legs hanging from the edge while the cows gathered, slowly, for water

Section of the roof, the corn fields melt with the roof, which marks the beginning fo the meadows and the existing informal path for the cows across the farm

Mountain nomads

The Bridge

The Bridge

Summers are becoming hotter, the river is quiet, but persistent.

The bridge opens like a gate through the forest that surrounds it. All the trees follow the river, as once the bridge did. We moved it last time from a further location, before the rain. The wooden structure is light and demountable, easy to carry if working in groups. We gathered everyone from the village. The stones are the first ones to settle on the ground, then the beams, columns and last the roof, tied to the stone by thing steel cables.

Today, some children are crossing in front of me, they are helping with the sowing. Just for the morning, as part of their extracurricular agenda.

Once they leave, I continue my journey, I am leaving the Quintana. Before I leave, I sit down on the circular opening, gently made on the floor, the water flows under my feet. I look in front of me and I see it; I see it all. The roof, the chair, the house. It is spread among the farmland; each element works together but follows their own agenda.

I put my boots on the last floating wooden step before the stone, and after that, the path, that will take me back to El Camino de Santiago.

“Antiguamente en la zona rural los puentes también eran en cierta medida móviles para cruzar el río.”

“In the past, in rural areas, bridges were also mobile to a certain extent to cross the river.”

Amelia, former mayor of Guimarán

The bridge, floating over the river, protected by the trees, it rests, until moved, always searching for the perfect spot

Section of the bridge, the connection between paths, community, and Santiago

The bridge, a transit space that allows to sit, and listen the stream, flowing under, sometimes busy, others calmly, according to the seasons

Continuing my journey, I needed to cross the river, the bridge had a little opening, I looked down, the river stream moved slowly, like a whisper, I looked up, the spring green leaves covered the opening, some dots of blue sky

Mountain nomads

The Chair

The Chair

I sit on the chair, and I can see the whole valley before me. The factory chimneys stick on the horizon, while some sheep graze before me. I built the chair this morning, just but joining the pieces together, like in the hórreo. The simple wooden connections make it easy for me to assemble it on my own. I hang the stone from the roof for stability, today it is windy, but the chair does not move much.

Its long roof span covers enough to not get wet or sunburnt, if many of us come together, we can make a small shelter facing one chair to another. But today I am alone. I put out my lunch on the little table which balance in equilibrium on top of the chair’s arm. I sit back, my feet don’t touch the ground completely and the grass is caressing my legs.

Today is a day to remember memories.

“Tengo una silla que está aquí abajo ahora y la pongo allí debajo del naranjo.

Muchas veces me siento y empiezas a pensar en todas las cosas, que viviste y te llevas, llega un momento que dices tú, y aquello si nunca más pensé en eso, si ya no me acordas a rebominar cosas de atrás, eh, que ya son 60 años. Y te vienen unas cosas en la cabeza que es que si no piensas en ellas ni te acuerdas de ellas. Se te van, se te van. Y la mejor cosa de eso es de verdad que tener la calma y no corre todo el día y pensar en ello para atrás. Tener tiempo para recordar.

Que se te vienen a la cabeza muchas cosas ya”

“I have a chair down here now, and I put it there under the orange tree.

Many times I sit down and you start thinking about all the things you’ve experienced, and you get to a point where you say, “Well, I never thought about that again, I don’t remember reminiscing about things from back in the day, eh, it’s been 60 years.” And things come to mind that, “If you don’t think about them or remember them, they go away, they go away.” And the best thing about that is really being calm and not running around all day thinking about it. Having time to remember.

A lot of things come to mind already.”

Conchita de Casa Bernabel

The chair composition, Elements to build the chair prototype Wood, concrete,

The chair, single in the landscape or gathered in groups, as single elements spread among the fields, a place to contemplate and reflect

Selected references

This project has been about discovering the heritage of my country, my family, and myself. What started as a fascination with the humble Hórreo, became a deep exploration into the Asturian landscape and vernacular architecture, as both are inseparable.

I chose Guimarán as the base of the project due to its location at the intersection of the rural and urban exodus, and the Camino de Santiago. Guimarán is the perfect case study of the rural ambiguity that Asturias is experiencing. Currently, especially since the pandemic, the countryside has become a popular destination, due to its quality of life and modern infrastructure. However, the migration of people from the urban setting can also be dangerous if not controlled or educated to integrate and preserve the essence of the rural landscape.

By looking at the core communal elements of vernacular architecture, which have slowly been abandoned during the years, and integrating them into the contemporary interventions, this problem could be prevented. The neo-rurals could adjust to the local culture and vice versa, without creating tension between the residents and newcomers, creating a new language.

My goal with this project is to capture the rural culture and to make an effort of bringing it to a global scale as a subject, an effort to connect a local and personal idea to a global issue. The disappearance of this rural character is a phenomenon not unique to this region, but a global matter, seen in many different settings, crying for the same attention.

Creating public spaces, spread across the landscape and mindfully related to the rural communal activities, can revitalise the quality of community that is getting lost due to individualism. The public space in the countryside has been placed in protected natural parks or controlled programs, while in the past, with a simple set of rules, public Quintanas and open lands were part of the system, making the landscape public and involving everyone around to take care of it and relate to it.

A sensible approach to the countryside is necessary to design inclusive spaces, where past and future can merge into a new solution to mitigate the exploitation or abandonment of the rural. Opening the countryside to the foreign world can facilitate the transition to a new typology, and in between rural and urban a place with no boundaries.

The methodology followed during this project could serve as an example of approaching a culture and landscape with care and attention. Introducing oneself to the community, analysing the needs and possible solutions, and integrating in the existing network. While interacting with the community, surroundings, construction technologies, and resources.

Architecture might not be the only solution to save the rural world for a fast developing economy of mass production, but it can encourage a sensibility that embraces action. A sense of place where new beginnings can flourish.

I hope this project inspires future efforts to preserve the local rural character while implementing contemporary solutions. In the end it’s the people that carry on this knowledge and tradition, and it’s about finding ways to promote community and facilitate the exchange of knowledge.

Selected references

ABRIL REVUELTA, O. Y LASHERAS MERINO, F., Chozos y casetas en el corazón de castilla: la arquitectura rural como espacio habitable para el hombre del campo, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid. Dpto. Construcción y Tecnologías Arquitectónicas., 2013.

ERDOZÁIN AZPILICUETA, PILAR Y MIKELARENA PELLA, FERNANDO., Algunas consideraciones acerca de la evolución de la población rural en España en el siglo XIX, University of Zaragoza (implied affiliation), 1996.

SAVOY, LAURET E., ancestral structures on the trailing edge, Emergence Magazine, 2023.

CASTILLO Y QUINTANA, D. JUSTO DEL., Principios del Arte de Construcción, Consejo de Instrucción Pública, 1894.

DELGADO URRECHO, JOSÉ MARÍA., No vale café para todos, hay zonas con una despoblación ya irrecuperable, El Comercio

BODEMZICHT FOUNDATION., Bodemzicht learning place, Bodemzicht Foundation, 2022.

GONZÁLEZ-LEONARDO, MIGUEL (AND OTHERS). La «leyenda urbana» en datos: así fue la emigración juvenil de Asturias en el nuevo siglo, La Voz de Asturias

INSTITUTO GEOLÓGICO Y MINERO DE ESPAÑA (IGME) AND GOBIERNO DEL PRINCIPADO DE ASTURIAS., mapa de rocas y minerales industriales de asturias memoria, Instituto Geológico y Minero de España (IGME) in collaboration with Gobierno del Principado de Asturias

ORTÍN, S., Éxodo urbano. Estrategias arquitectónicas para la cohesión territorial, Universitat Politècnica de València, 2020

BENAVENTE CUELLAS, ANDREA., Estudio de los hórreos en el norte peninsular, Universidad de Oviedo

GUTIÉRREZ, EDUARDO, MORAL-BENITO, ENRIQUE Y RAMOS, ROBERTO., Tendencias recientes de la población en las áreas rurales y urbanas de españa, Banco de España, 2020, http://www.bde.es.

ARANGUREN URROZ, GAIZKA., Mineras de la memoria: La gestión del valor de la memoria oral y el Patrimonio Inmaterial: el caso de Labrit., UPV-EHU, 2020.

FERNÁNDEZ RIESTRA, FRANCISCO XOSÉ AND MARCOS FERNÁNDEZ, JESÚS., Aproximación a la arquitectura tradicional, SUMMA, 2011.

MANSO, JOAQUÍN, Grandones, obreros y emigrantes, El Mundo, 2017

GONZÁLEZ-LEONARDO, MIGUEL Y LÓPEZ-GAY, ANTONIO., Del éxodo rural al éxodo interurbano de titulados universitarios: la segunda oleada de despoblación. AGER: Revista de Estudios sobre Despoblación y Desarrollo Rural (Journal of Depopulation and Rural Development Studies), 2021

D.G. DESARROLLO RURAL, INNOVACIÓN Y FORMACIÓN AGROALIMENTARIA., Diagnóstico de la Igualdad de Género en el Medio Rural 2021, Ministerio de Agricultura, Pesca y Alimentación, Secretaría General Técnica, Centro de publicaciones, 2021

IGNASI ROS FONTANA, Fritz Krüger y las fotografías de un trabajo de campo en Asturias (1927), Gijón, Fundación Municipal de Cultura, Educación y Universidad Popular Ayuntamiento de Gijón, 1999.

JAVIER FERNÁNDEZ CUESTA, Supra Terram Granaria: Hórreos, cabazos y otros graneros en el límite de Asturias y Galicia, Gijón, Museú del Pueblu d’Asturies, 2011

H ARQUITECTES, Casa 1736 in Barcelona, Barcelona, El Croquis, 2025

REY, JULIEN, Memories of a vanished monument, Zürich, ETH Zürich, D-ARCH, 2024.

TIMÓN TIEMBLO, MARÍA PÍA, MUÑOZ CARRIÓN, ANTONIO, Memoria e identidad de las comunidades portadoras en el desarrollo de buenas prácticas de salvaguardia del PCI, Revista PH, Instituto del Patrimonio Cultural de España, 2021.

MOHSEN MOSTAFAVI, DAVID LEATHERBARROW, On Weathering: The Life of Buildings in Time, Cambridge (MA), MIT Press, 1993.

VV.AA., Villages and Towns #9: Iberia, Tokyo, A+U Publishing, 1980.

ILKA RUBY, ANDREAS RUBY (eds.), The Materials Book, Berlin, Ruby Press, 2010.

PRATS & FLORES, Archives Universum, Barcelona, Archives Universum, 2018.

JAIME IZQUIERDO VALLINA, La ciudad agropolitana & La aldea cosmopolita, Oviedo, KRK Ediciones, 2017.

SEBASTIANO BRANDOLINI, The Inhabited Pathway: The Built Work of Alberto Ponis in Sardinia, Zurich, Park Books, 2019

KAREN ROSENKRANZ, City Quitters: Creative Pioneers Pursuing Post-Urban Life, Amsterdam, Frame Publishers, 2018.

JOSÉ ÁNGEL RIVAS ANDINA, El hórreo y la arquitectura popular en Asturias, Gijon, Picu Urrieliu, 2007.

GERÓNIMO LOZANO APOLO, ALFONSO LOZANO MARTÍNEZ-LUENGAS, Hórreos, Cabazos y Garayas, Oviedo, Real Instituto de Estudios Asturianos (RIDEA), 2003.

A journey

The beginning of

Summer 2023

Asturias, Spain

Sietes, Candas, Carreño, Oviedo, Cenero, Gijón, Villaviciosa, Vayones

During this research trip and site exploration I had a first glimpse of the area and the hórreos. I was able to examin the landscape and the vernacular architecture.

While collecting data with pictures, sample gathering, and on-site work, I started to wonder about the impact my project could have for these people and the building, the representation and dedication it deserves.

My knowledge already has deepened from a previous research and this preliminary visit, challenging the initial vision for what I had in mind and broadening my ideas on how to develop my thesis.

While meeting craftsmen and hórreo masters already, I was able to see the carpenter workshop and some pieces under construction, learning the oral tradition of building hórreos and the cultural foundation that forms them.

Learning from Fernando, the archeologist and becoming his intern for a week, I could measure, explore, and interview among the lands of Asturias and the owners of the few hórreos left.

The rich culture embraces a nostalgic aura among the small villages that compose this region. Its demographic slowly disappearing, left for older generations full of memories and excitement to share, leaving a small footprint behind.

This project has been possible with the help of my family, friends, my graduation comission and external advisors. Thank you for the unconditional support and guidance I recieved along this journey.

Dear Jo, Anna and Gianni, thank you for the enriching discussions and inspiration.

Distelweg studio, thank you for your four walls, roof and messy floor and the people.

Thank you to the people from Asturias who I crossed paths with, they opened their home and life stories sincerely, so I could develop a project from the heart.

A special thanks to Fernando and Julio, who has guided me from the distance yet close, to keep the essence of the project alive.

To my mother, whose strength and enthusiasm has encouraged me, since childhood, to never give up.

Last, thank you to Vincent. My rock and savior during the adventure of graduation, every sleepless night or early morning, always with a smile and a shoulder for me to rest. Gracias mi vida.

Gracias Asturias, por ser tan única.

For the people that left. That may never comeback, but the ones that will persue their legacy.

For the women that left, this time is to comeback free.

Mountain Nomads, revitalizing the rural identity of Asturias

Thesis project by Fabia Sainz Fernandez

Mentor, Architect, Jo Barnett Committee, Landscape Architect, Anna Fink Committee, Architect, Gianni Cito

External advisor, Archeologist, Fernando Mora Rodriguez External advisor, Master carpenter, Julio Cesar Zapico

External committee, Marlies Boterman External committee, Dingeman Deijs

Printed and bound by boekbinderij Hennink, Rinus Hennink, Amsterdam, 2025

Master in Architecture Academie van Bouwkunst, Amsterdam 2023 - 2025