Paisajes inventados

In the 1950s and 1960s, the National Institute of Colonization launched a project to transform rural Galicia into a model of intensive agricultural production. In Terra Cha, villages such as Matodoso, Arneiro, Pumar, and A Espineira were built, designed by the Galician architect Alejandro de la Sota, although the urban and architectural concepts followed patterns foreign to the region.

These settlements were part of an experiment to repopulate rural Galicia. However, the design followed models intended for the dry and warm regions of southern Spain. The houses, built on a single level with low-pitched roofs, were not suited to Galicia's humid climate. The materials and forms, rooted in functionalist modernism, were designed for the hot summers of southern Spain, not for the constant rain and cold of the north.

De la Sota, one of Spain's most renowned architects, used a rationalist aesthetic with clean lines and geometric forms, but he did not take Galicia's unique climate into account. The houses, uniform and lacking traditional Galician features such as hórreos or thick stone walls to protect against moisture, were built with thin walls and low roofs, quickly revealing their structural flaws once exposed to constant rain.

The urban layout, based on efficiency, featured organized streets, central squares, and a standardized distribution. However, the design failed to integrate with Galicia's natural landscape. The villages imposed an artificial landscape that, decades later, still clashes with the rural environment.

The settlers, many of them displaced by the construction of dams such as the Salime dam, found themselves in a completely unfamiliar environment. The land was of poor agricultural quality, and the project failed to fulfill the regime's promises. The buildings, once symbols of progress, soon began to deteriorate, leaving behind villages that never met expectations.

Over time, the villages of Terra Cha have become testimony to a failed experiment. The architecture, alien to both landscape and climate, marks the collective memory of the settlers and their descendants. What was once presented as a symbol of modernization now appears as an alien architecture that never integrated with its surroundings or with its people - an invented landscape.