According to data from the Santiago de Compostela Tourist Office, almost 263,000 pilgrims come to the city each year (in jubilee years, that number doubles to half a million). Of these, half are foreigners from across all continents. 85% are European, half of whom are Spanish, from every region, but mainly from Madrid, Andalusia and Catalonia. More than 90% go on foot, with the rest going by bicycle (9.6%, around 25,000 people), on horseback (326 people), and a small number in wheelchairs (71 in 2015). They all get their “compostela” or accreditation, for reaching their goal, which is issued by the Pilgrim’s Office. To get their certificate, pilgrims must travel the last 100 kilometres on foot or horse, or 200 kilometres by bike, and prove their achievement with the stamps that they receive for each stage, the only requirements needed to consider their journey complete.

This journey started in the Middle Ages, when the remains of St. James the Greater were discovered in the 9th century near the city. According to history and legend, this follower of Jesus preached in the land that we now know as Spain –a fact highlighted by scholars such as Beatus de Liébana– and then subsequently travelled to Palestine, where he was martyred, with his remains finally arriving in Galicia at the campus stellae, or field of the stars –whose name comes from the mysterious lights that attracted its discoverers– which, it is believed, gave ‘Compostela’ its name. When the Muslims invaded the peninsula, with the exception of the Kingdom of Asturias, the devotion to the Apostle quickly grew, and he was soon considered the patron saint of Spain.

Together with Rome and Jerusalem, Santiago became a great centre of Christian spirituality. The rise of pilgrimages, journeys with a sense of penance, the atonement for sin, fit with the medieval mindset in which spirituality was present in all areas of daily life. This was also in line with the concept of homo viator, human beings as “pilgrims” in earthly life, in transition to a spiritual and internal life that can only be attained by the cleansing of sin. So much so that forcing prisoners and criminals to go on the Camino de Santiago became a standard sentence in some European courts of the Middle Ages, although the pilgrimage was made by people of all social classes, including nobles, some of whom commissioned others to walk the route on their behalf.

These days the profile of the travellers is much more varied, and ranges from true pilgrims who more than anything are seeking an inner experience, to tourists, adventurers, and curious types, as well as every other possible combination. As a result, although participation in the Camino is free, there are many companies that offer all kinds of services –transport and storage of backpacks, suitcases and bicycles– and tourist packages that, in addition to walking sections, also include guided tours, airport, bus or train transfers, riding on horseback and even donkeys, hotels, gastronomy, etc.

And as was the case centuries ago, the Camino itself is an economic engine and cultural itinerary of the highest order, offering boundless artistic and natural riches. Although, in many cases, the routes leading to Santiago already existed before the discovery of the tomb of the Apostle, they prompted the entry and dissemination of cultural currents from the rest of Europe. After reaching its peak in the 12th and 13th centuries, the Camino went into decline, and it was not until the 1980’s that it started to regain its value, going on to become the huge phenomenon that it is today.

While the “French Route”, which crosses the Pyrenees through Roncesvalles, is the most popular route to reach Compostela from Europe, chosen by more than 66% of the pilgrims, there are more than a dozen routes throughout Spain. Virtually every region has its Jacobean route, many of which were forgotten and have been rediscovered thanks to the work of associations and scholars. In 2015, UNESCO expanded its ‘Heritage of Humanity’ classification, which the French Route had held since 1993, to include four other routes to the north of the country: the Coastal Route; the Inland Route of the Basque Country and La Rioja; the Liébana Route and the Camino Primitivo, which together total 1,500 kilometres.

At the same time, Spanish associations of friends on the Camino de Santiago –34 in total–, have studied, revived, and marked 12,000 kilometres of routes with yellow arrows, throughout Spain since the late 1980s, in addition to recruiting 700 volunteers known as “hospitaleros”, to work in around 40 free hostels, which were referred to in the past as “hospitales”. The pilgrims also have a further 400 places of paid accommodation managed by parishes, municipalities and other entities and institutions.

“To create a unique symbol for each place”

Bruce Fairbanks, founder of Fairbanks Arquitectos, has accumulated extensive experience in the design of airport buildings since 1996 when he won the tender for the construction of the Madrid-Barajas control tower.

Presently in the world of airports there is a trend to promote the control tower as a symbol, an image that represents the airport and a reference point for the arrival in, and departure from the city where it is located. This trend has created increased interest in architectural execution in the design of control towers in addition to their functional requirements. It is precisely the individuality of these requirements that significantly affects the type of building, such that throughout history there are various examples of “types” of tower designs, which, once designed, were repeated in various airports: one notable case is the leoh Ming Pei control tower. It was designed between 1962 and 1965 with the objective implementation in 70 airports, although in the end 16 were built. The concept of locating in upper levels strictly that which was necessary was developed, putting the maximum amount of functions in the base building, which was adapted to the specific characteristics of each location. As such, the tower could be prefabricated and repeated with standardised equipment, giving the airport network an image of safety since a controller could work in any location without having to adapt. The tower was designed with 5 standardised heights (18-46 m) in accordance with visibility requirements in each location. The control tower’s cab is pentagonal so there are no parallel façades and so as to avoid reflections. In Spain, in the 1970s, Juan Montero Romero, an aeronautical engineer, built a tower, which was repeated in several cities: Málaga, Alicante, Valencia, etc.

To create a landmark, the architect must find within the functionality the characteristics that distinguish one tower from others

Converting control towers into airport landmarks and reference points for cities is a challenge in the work of an architect: creating a symbol, always unique for each location, which meets all of the requirements for the optimal functioning of the tower. The location, the height of the control room, its form and the layout of its structural elements are some of the first elements to define. Control towers typically have a base building and a shaft that supports the upper floors, which are designed to adapt to the control operations. Given the form, with an upper part and a lower part and the height of the type of building, in my opinion it is essential to incorporate the construction process into the design of the tower, and this is what I have done in those which I have designed. This design comes from an analysis of the functional aspects, the programme and the location. To create a landmark, the architect must find within the functionality the characteristics that can distinguish one tower from others and strengthen them to create a unique tower with its own character in each case.

Analysis of four cases

The following examples of control towers show diferente conceptual approaches to design this building type and the elements that diversify its design.

1962. Dulles airport, Washington DC
Eero Saarinen

The Dulles tower has all of the equipment rooms at a height, elegantly assembled by Saarinen with two juxtaposed bodies. The form of the tower is integrated with that of the terminal building, also designed by the same architect.

1992. JFK airport, Nueva York
Pei Cobb Freed & Partners

The upper part of the JFK tower, 97.5 metres in height, contains only the aerodrome control cab and half way up the shaft there is the platform control room, which takes the same form as the upper levels.

1997. Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas airport
Bruce Fairbanks

The Adolfo Suárez Madrid-Barajas control tower had the specific feature of a 400 m² equipment room located at a height. To resolve the transition between the shaft of the tower and the projection, an inverted half sphere was adopted, with a floor for air conditioning equipment being inserted in the support. The octagonal shape defined for the
cab is extended throughout the top of the building, the structural design of a central column and 8 perimeter columns is repeated on all levels.

Another particular feature of the tower is the construction system designed as an integral part of the design. The shaft is built with prefabricated segments assembled in spirals, which, on the inside, contain the service ducts and circumscribe the emergency stairway. The upper floors were built with a metallic structure on the floor and subsequently hoisted onto the shaft. The system allowed the tower to be built in nine months, without using scaffolding.

2004. Barcelona-El Prat airport
Bruce Fairbanks

The functional requirements were similar to those of Barajas, with the exception that a large part of the equipment is located in the base building. The resistant structure is defined independently from the functional elements of the shaft, which was developed as a representative design element. An eight-pointed hyperbola generated from the octagonal shape of the cab holds the upper floors.

The hyperbola links the tower with Catalan Modernism and Antoni Gaudí, who used this form in many of his designs, including on the domes of the Sagrada Familia. The construction system is a representative part of his design. The assembly of the hyperbola, built with prefabricated concrete girders, was guided by a central aluminium structure designed to contain the elements of the shaft. The upper floors were built on land and hoisted into position, supported by the eight points of the hyperbola, consolidating the whole structure when it was under load.

“In the future, it will not be necessary to view operations”

Roberto Serrano has participated in more than 50 aeronautical projects, amongst them, the NET and SAT control towers of Madrid-Barajas airport and the new control tower of Eldorado airport (Bogotá).

Although the first control towers date back to the 1920s (in 1921, Croydon airport in London was the first in the world to introduce air traffic control), it was from the 1930s that they became commonplace, due to the fact that growing aircraft traffic made controlling and managing it necessary. At that time, in which technology was nothing like the current systems, the need to visually supervise aeronautical operations around the airport was met by placing the control room (cab) in an elevated and predominant position of the airport (control tower).

To date, the first steps in designing a control tower involve establishing its site and the height of the cab. Internationally, to meet the viewing requirements from the cab, the recommendations of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) are applied. The optimum height and location of a control tower is the result of weighing up many considerations. The view from the cab requires the air traffic controller to be able to distinguish the aircraft and vehicles that circulate in the manoeuvring area, as well as aircraft that fly over the airport, particularly in take-off and landing paths. The objective is to have the maximum visibility possible and avoid the sun, external light sources and reflections from adjacent buildings affecting the visibility of the controller.

Nowadays, technology allows a practically blind landing

With regard to the location, we must consider the potential effects of local weather: flood areas or areas susceptible to fog. Its compatibility with the potential future development of the airport must also be studied, thereby avoiding the need to relocate the tower before the end of its life cycle. Insofar as possible, the tower and its buildings should be located on the landside of the airport, thus avoiding access through the airfield and facilitating the entry of staff. Furthermore, the location should be such that it does not affect the quality of the signals of the airport’s radio navigation aids (ILS, VOR, DME, etc.), or communication systems. The minimum height required for the control tower can be obtained with the aid of the FAA visibility analysis tool, ATCTVAT (Airport Traffic Control Tower Visibility Analysis Tool), in accordance with the physical conditions of the airport.

Once the position and height has been determined, the infrastructure is designed, and generally includes a cab and an antenna field, which, located on the roof of the cab, normally has communications antennas, radio relays, and other electronic and lightening protection elements. Furthermore, there are areas for staff, equipment, power, air conditioning, etc.

In an era in which technology provides information to pilots to allow a practically blind landing, is it necessary to keep air traffic controllers in a high position so they can see these operations? In the future, air traffic control rooms will probably be in buildings that are more similar to those of offices or air traffic control centres than the current towers.

The future has already become reality

2015. Control tower of Örnsköldsvik airport, Sweden

Recently, Örnsköldsvik airport in Sweden replaced its control tower with high-tech cameras. Signals are sent to controllers stationed in Sunvsal airport, located around 150 kilometres away, from a 25-metre mast with 14 high-definition cameras. The high performance of these cameras eliminates blind spots, provides information in rain, fog or snow and, along with a whole series of weather sensors, microphones and other devices, it allows controllers to feel as if they were beside the runway. The Swedish Transport Agency approved remotely operated towers on 31 October 2014. Six months later, the first airplane landed in Örnsköldsvik airport using the remote tower services.

With more than three million travellers in 2015, according to data from the Ministry of Public Works, passengers have given the ‘thumbs up’ to the Atlantic Axis, a railway infrastructure designed for speeds of up to 250 km/h. The renovation, electrification and duplication of existing routes in addition to the construction of new bypasses and several viaducts, bridges and tunnels have made it possible to transition from the old, non-electrified single tracks to high-performance rail infrastructure: greater speeds, capacity, safety, frequency and comfort for passengers who save up to 58% in travel time. In addition to making renovations to the rolling stock, Renfe has also maintained fares and reorganised rail services which are now divided into “express” and “local” services to cover direct routes between large cities as well as between the urban centres near these cities.

Ineco collaborated in the execution of these projects which have revitalised railway transport in Galicia. According to data from the Railway Observatory of the Ministry of Public Works, the A Coruña-Santiago route is one of the top five regional rail lines for traffic in all of Spain. The Businessmen’s Association of Galicia (Círculo de Empresarios de Galicia) considers that the growth in traffic along this route –a growth of more than 90% between 2008 and 2013– is “a fact that must be directly attributed to the improvement in infrastructure and the implementation of a high-performance rail line on this route of the Atlantic Axis”.

Ineco has worked in construction & environmental management & monitoring, project drafting, inspections & structural testing

In April 2015 the Santiago de Compostela-Vigo section was inaugurated –the third of the three sections that make up the majority of this route which represents a milestone in the modernisation of the Galician railway. The territory of this region is characterised by a great dispersion of populated areas: few big cities –concentrated in costal areas–, many small, isolated areas –especially inland– and very rugged terrain. In addition to these characteristics we can also mention the natural geographical barriers that separate Galicia from the Meseta –barriers that have historically stood in the way of constructing land transport infrastructures, both road and rail.

A far-reaching project

The Axis, spanning 155 kilometres, runs along Galicia’s Atlantic Coast and connects the main areas of industrial and economic activity as well as universities, areas which fuel the demand for transport. The pre-study phase is already underway for the connections A Coruña-Ferrol (63.2 km) to the north of the Axis, in addition to Vigo-Border of Portugal (22.1 km) in the far south of Galicia. The route also connects Santiago with Ourense in the east where this section links up with the high-speed access route to Madrid which is currently under construction.

Initial work on the transformation of existing infrastructure into a modern, high-performance, rapid railway corridor began in 2002. Work was carried out in phases and consisted in installing, along the entire route, a double track with multi-purpose sleepers that will later allow for the change from the Iberian gauge to the standard gauge. The line has also been electrified to 25 kV at 50 Hz, and bypasses have been constructed which have shortened the route by almost 22 kilometres. New sections of the line, owing to the land’s rugged terrain, required several structures: 37 tunnels –totalling a distance of more than 60 kilometres– and 32 viaducts that span a total of 14.9 kilometres. The majority of these structures are located along the section between Santiago and Vigo. This was the most complex part of the route to construct and was the last to begin operating, following both A Coruña-Santiago in 2009 and the Santiago-Ourense connection in December 2011.

In addition to the work concerning electrification, platforms and route corrections (bypasses), adapting the line to new, high speeds also required the remodelling of stations at A Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, Pontevedra, Uxes, Villagarcía de Arousa and Arcade-Apeadero, as well as the construction of new stations: Cerceda-Meirama, Ordes, Padrón-Barbanza, Redondela High Speed and Vigo-Urzáiz, as well as the “temporary” Vigo-Guixar station.

Ineco on the Atlantic Axis

Throughout these years, Ineco has offered their services to the Ministry of Public Works, Renfe and Adif in these highly technical and complex activities, just as they did for the rest of the rail network. Ineco was thus responsible for carrying out tasks regarding the management, coordination and surveillance of construction work, the environmental management of different sections along the whole of the Axis, and the drafting of architectural plans (stations) and railway installations (signalling, safety, telecommunications, etc.).The company also conducted a number of studies in addition to inspections and structural load tests, some as exceptional as that of the Ulla viaduct (see IT54)

Ineco furthermore provided assistance in the management and coordination of tunnel construction work, such as the Vigo access tunnel measuring 8,266 metres long which was carried out using tunnelling machinery, and in the installation of safety systems: electrical installations, ventilation, fire protection systems, etc..

Also worth mentioning in relation to architectural work is the drafting of the construction project for the Vigo-Guixar station which, starting in 2011, has operated as the sole station following demolition of the old building while the new terminal was constructed (in the same location). The Guixar station is a two-storey passenger building boasting 1,000 square metres of space, three platforms measuring 285, 165 and 100 metres long for long-distance and regional rail trains, parking, and bus and taxi stops. When the new Vigo-Urzáiz station began operating in 2015, the Ministry of Public Works decided to keep the Guixar station open to freight transport as well as to local trains.

Ineco also carried out a project, completed in 2010, to standardise architectural elements such as marquees, enclosure gates, decorative elements and locks at nine stations: Redondela, Pontevedra, Padrón, Ordes, Cerceda, Uxes, Pontevedra-Universidad, Arcade and Vilagarcía de Arousa. New passenger buildings were also designed for the latter two stations.

The 155-km line has reduced the average travel time between A Coruña and Vigo by 58% and is one of the most widely travelled routes Spain

With regard to new sections of the line, Ineco coordinated the construction of the Ordes bypass in the province of A Coruña, a section that, over a span of just 7.2 kilometres, required two tunnels and a handful of viaducts. The Vilagarcía-Padrón bypass located between Santiago and Vigo stands out for its complexity, reaching a length of 26.1 kilometres. The company provided technical assistance throughout the management of construction work as well as during the environmental management, control and surveillance of several subsections. The bypass was one of the corridor’s most complex sections with seven tunnels and a dozen viaducts, including one which crosses the Ulla river (spanning a distance of 16 kilometres) and another that crosses over the Sar river –the longest on the Axis- measuring 2.4 kilometres.

Ineco also played a role during each of the phases of development of another high-performance railway connection: the line which links the Atlantic Axis to Ourense from Santiago (see IT18 and 44). The company was highly involved in all of the stages of development of this 150-kilometre section of the line, from project drafting to drawing up operations and maintenance plans, as well as during the construction phases including construction and environmental management services, technical assistance, surveillance and coordination services, etc. Since it entered into service in December 2011, the Santiago-Ourense corridor has also contributed to improving railway connections with the Meseta by reducing existing conventional service travel time by 50 minutes.

Since last August, more than 20,000 residents of this new construction zone have been able to reach the centre of Madrid in 25 minutes thanks to the new halt, without having to go to the centre of Torrejón de Ardoz. Located in this Madrid municipality of 127,000 inhabitants in the north-east of Madrid, the new station belongs to the C7 commuter line and serves the districts of Soto del Henares, Mancha Amarilla and Zarzuela, a zone near the Hospital of Torrejón and the new Casablanca industrial estate. Ineco has carried out the architectural, structural and installation design, as well as construction management for Adif. It is a modular structure of porticos that eliminates the need for interior pillars (open plan) and can be easily adapted to any type of station. The main building, direction Alcalá de Henares, has a rectangular floor, a foyer with waiting areas, automatic ticket vending machines and six faregates, with the possibility of increasing this number to nine. It also has a space for offices, toilets and utility rooms.

Ineco has carried out the architectural, structural and installation design, as well as construction management for Adif

A modular and extendible design

The halt has two buildings, one for each direction. In the interior, all uses are distributed by independent building volumes (‘building within a building’). The station was designed with a capacity to receive 6,000 passengers a day, although the modular structure facilitates its future expansion.

Golden ratio

The geometry of the buildings is based on the golden ratio of a two-metre square, which forms rectangles of 2.8282 x 2m. When doubled they create a module of 5.6564 x 2m, and from the division of this module come all of the internal distances between porticos and different spaces are created.

A light box

The main building is laid out as a rectangular prism with two façades, which provides a maintenance area between them. While the “skin” tinges the interior-exterior light (‘light box’ effect), the outer layer generates permeability and allows the design to be changed.

Platforms

The platform edges are 1.75 metres from the track centres, with a width of 5 metres and a length of 210 metres, with 6 metre slopes at each end. Thanks to the 80 metres of canopy extending from the buildings, passengers are always sheltered when they access the platforms.

Other stations designed by Ineco

Ineco has extensive experience in drawing up architectural designs, as well as in construction management and technical assistance and the preparation of feasibility studies in different types of stations, both overground and underground.

• In Cercanías (commuter rail) we should highlight, amongst others, projects such as the Miribilla station in Bilbao, built at a depth of 50 metres; the two in the Málaga airport access and a few others in the Valencian town of Alboraya, all of which are also underground, or the modern Cercanías halt of the Manuel-Énova bypass of the high-speed line to Levante.
• With regard to modular stations, in 2009 it developed an innovation project taking a small halt in the north of Madrid, Las Zorreras, as a reference. A similar solution was also planned, the predecessor of that of Soto del Henares, for the Las Margaritas-Universidad station, in Getafe, in the southern zone of Madrid. Abroad, in 2011, eight modern modular stations were designed for the Bogotá Western Corridor in Colombia.
• With regard to the renovation of historical stations, we can highlight the design and construction management of the historic façade of Atocha (2012), that of the full renovation of Aranjuez station (2008) currently underway, or the modernisation works in around twenty Catalan stations (2009).
• As well as architecture projects, we can also highlight other services, such as technical assistance for the work of the new La Sagrera-Meridiana commuter station in Barcelona (2010) or the prior feasibility studies for the Belgrade light rail in Serbia, with 25 stations, 10 of them underground; or for the São Paulo commuter network in Brazil, which included the construction of nine stations and the renovation of 65 others.
• With regard to highspeed stations, Ineco has carried out around twenty projects, both in construction management and in drawing up architectural designs: this is the case for the stations of Puente Genil, Camp and Antequera-Santa Ana (2007), that of Vigo-Guixar or the projects in nine other stations of the Galician Atlantic corridor in 2010 (see article). Ineco has also worked in the construction management to adapt stations in the whole network for high speed: Santa Justa in Seville, Sants in Barcelona, Atocha in Madrid, Toledo, Zaragoza, A Coruña, Santiago and Ourense in Galicia, etc., as well as in that of enlargement of the Atocha railway complex and its new AVE terminal, begun in 2010.