Roberto Rovira

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Granada

The city of Granada, Nicaragua was studied through progressive mapping, in an effort to uncover the ineffable qualities of its landscape. Using the technique of intaglio printmaking as a starting point, numerous cartographic constructions were created, uncovering the potential of the map as a medium of prediction, as much as one of creation and hypothesis. Layers and qualities of the land were progressively exposed and the irreducible element of water–

its pervasive influence and historic omnipresence in the form of vast lakes, rivers, cloud forests and seasonal rains–emerged as the medium through which dense, urban forest-rooms, modeled after the vernacular courtyard, were created. These lush spaces incorporated the city’s rivers as vital lifelines, making them essential elements with which to preserve the qualities of the land, notwithstanding the many dramatic changes that the city was poised to endure in years to come.