Lewis Brown
Topographía da Linguaxe
Drawing out a voice
This project draws upon the cultural history of water and of the Galician language in Santiago de Compostela to develop a proposal for a building that evolves from the concept of an ecstatic object.
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Santiago de Compostela is overlaid with an intricate topography of names, within which a complex cultural and political history is inscribed. The contemporary issues surrounding the loss of Galician language and place-names – including that of the erasure of historical consciousness – form the driving narrative of this project. Water is ubiquitous in Santiago de Compostela – it envelopes the city in mist and rain, and spreads through it in the form of rivers, springs and fountains. Historically, institutions of water, such as the many old laundries in the city, were used as a dialogic social spaces where events of the moment were discussed and deciphered. Inspired by the book-reliquary which began the study, the project uses water to interweave a pilgrim’s bath house with a paper-making mill dedicated to the re-establishment of traditional Galician language.