VALECHE Studio

The jury appreciated this intervention for operating at the boundary between human use and non-human ecological processes by repurposing an abandoned aquaculture zone into a vast wetland and a multi-functional habitat, including educational purposes. It does not pretend to create untouched nature, nor does it reduce the wetland to a scenic park for people. Instead, it walks the fine line and works through gradients, edges and transitional surfaces where water, soil, plants, species and public access interact. The project also holds together different scales of perception: from the broader territorial wetland system to the close-up, human-scale experience of paths, bridges and carefully constructed details.