Modern science is going through a period of important reflection on the role of different agents and multiple disciplines in the management and safeguarding of architectural heritage. This new focus generates a greater amount and diversity of information, so the implementation of a unifying tool in the framework of digital information models would mean a better knowledge of cultural heritage as well as aiding its safeguarding and protection. In addition, it must be taken into account that, for the correct management of information in its broadest dimension, this tool must make it possible to relate alphanumeric data about an item of heritage to its spatial location. In this sense, this article proposes a Heritage Information System (HIS)—understood as a digital knowledge tool—that consists of a relational database and a map manager with Geographic Information System (GIS) technology (a geodatabase). The methodology suggested here sets out the steps that make up the HIS, so that the system can be applied to other geographical elements or realities. For this reason, a study was made of “La Cultura del Agua” in Valverde de Burguillos (Spain), a heritage ensemble that consists of rural architecture and dispersed preindustrial elements, which are currently at risk. The HIS seeks to develop a more complete identification of these elements (individually and as a system) and a justified argument for their being given value and great visibility. This new approach encourages sustainable development in terms of efficiency and effectiveness for the analysis, diagnosis, and reactivation of cultural heritage, always placing importance on the balance of social participation with the territory in which the system is applied, and with global society.

Este artículo analiza una arquitectura rural e industrial en un entorno concreto: los molinos hidráulicos harineros en la Sierra de Cádiz. Estas construcciones productivas y anónimas, repartidas estratégicamente por el territorio, son partes constitutivas de la cultura rural y construyen el paisaje serrano, porque han colaborado en la antropización y vertebración del territorio. Son también pequeñas infraestructuras hidráulicas que responden a las condiciones hidrográficas y orográficas de la comarca, en una relación de simbiosis entre recursos naturales y sociedad. A pesar de sus valores inherentes, los molinos han quedado al margen de la valoración, catalogación y protección oficial. La metodología de investigación aplicada (con base en la Taxonomía de Bloom y de acuerdo a la Guía Europea de observación del patrimonio rural-CEMAT) pone en valor estas arquitecturas y ha permitido deducir la importancia de estas construcciones en la lectura histórica y logística del territorio así como su legado patrimonial, arquitectónico, artesanal y cultural. Palabras clave: construcción del paisaje, territorio, paisaje, arquitectura rural, molino hidráulico, Sierra de Cádiz, patrimonio cultural.

New environmental challenges, coupled with the fact that 80% of the residential buildings that will exist in Europe in the year 2050 have already been built, mean that rehabilitation and restoration must be prioritised over new buildings. Construction is one of the largest generators of CO₂. Using prefabricated and industrialised products and systems can help to mitigate its harmful effects thanks to the greater control and environmental evaluation that can be carried out on these products from their manufacture until the end of their useful life (LCA). In the county of the Sierra de Cádiz (Andalusia, Spain), there are 85 water mills, many of which are derelict and in disuse, which, due to their location, size, and characteristics, are ideal for rehabilitation and restoration for residential use. Taking the “El Rodezno” mill as a case study, this paper proposes rehabilitation strategies using prefabricated industrialised elements that have a low environmental impact. The methodological discussion takes as its starting point the process of design and testing that Alvar Aalto applied in 1940 and from subsequent studies that have confirmed a research structure based on the project design and the built project with the appropriate field of study and confirmation of the applicable strategies and solutions. To this end, this article is written on the basis of the two main phases of Alvar Aalto’s method, using the same terms that the Danish architect defined: Scientific Observation, for the study of preceding works and projects in light prefabrication and for the analysis of certain construction products and systems that, based on other research, have evaluated their LCA, and Construction Period, for the rehabilitation strategies of the “El Rodezno” mill, considering the studies and analyses of Scientific Observation. For the roof solution, we took as an example the rehabilitation of the roof carried out with the same methodology, construction criteria, and prefabricated products analysed in this article and used in the intervention strategies in “El Rodezno”. The paper concludes with the validity of the methodology applied to test the starting hypotheses that lead to intervention strategies that confirm the environmental and economic advantages of industrialised prefabrication, the importance of the design and synergy that results from combining different construction systems, and technologies that improve the acceptance of prefabrication by the inhabitant and boost the circular economy.

Christian Norberg-Schulz publicó este libro en 1979 en italiano, y fue traducido al inglés solo un año después. Desde entonces, se ha posicionado como uno de los ensayos primordiales en la reflexión y comprensión del lugar desde la perspectiva fenomenológica de la arquitectura. Como secuela de sus trabajos teóricos precedentes, con esta obra pretende superar la teoría abstracta y científica para conquistar la dimensión existencial de la arquitectura en su contexto. Para ello, el libro se estructura en ocho capítulos que se podrían dividir en tres partes: en la primera, teórica, se asientan los fundamentos de los distintos tipos de lugares analizados: lugar, lugar natural y lugar artificial. La segunda parte, a modo de travelling, recorre y analiza tres ciudades para descender a su genius loci. En la última, conclusiva, se deducen en primer término los aspectos inherentes del lugar para finalizar con una reflexión del “lugar hoy”. Se perciben, de esta manera, las posibles contribuciones de la fenomenología en el mundo contemporáneo.

This article reflects on the potential that old productive architectures have in activating rural environments. Despite their obsolescence, they continue to form historical, functional and explanatory networks of the territories, with potential for reactivation. It starts with an approach on the interest that traditional and vernacular architectures have generated since the 20th century. The current regional spatial planning applied to the Sierra de Cadiz and the water mills is reviewed. Their typological, functional and implementation characteristics are analysed. Finally, new scenarios are proposed that take into consideration the recovery of these architectures and the reactivation of their region.