Capafonts is a very small town in the middle of the Serra de Prades, the north-western limit of el Camp. It is surrounded by 1000 meter mountains, which have kept it quite isolated almost until today. The town is in a very small hill in the valley where the Brugent river is born. Its microclimate is slightly colder and more humid than the one in el Camp, with cooler summers and snowy winters. Its forests are populated with oak and chestnut trees.
Capafonts was lacking a public, enclosed meeting space, where its people can gather, debate and make decisions about their town. At the same time, the project of the future Parc Natural de les Muntanyes de Prades that was expected to preserve the surrounding mountains and its life, was going to be implemented in just a few years. Capafonts was supposed to be one of its main gateways. So an information center was also envisioned.
Capafonts is surrounded by forests. Its houses were built transforming neighbour trees intro floors and roofs. However, for the last 150 years, this tradition has been lost. Building materials are now brought by big trucks from the lowlands of el Camp and beyond.
We started by searching whether it was possible to use trees, from these new and younger forests, as construction materials. Although there was no way to transform them in the town, there was a timber yard only 25 kilometers away. We knew this territory and its people. We were the local municipality architect. We had gone on walks and excursions -day and night- since we were children. The town not only needed an information center for the future National Park, for visitors, but a public place where neighbours could gather, discuss and agree about their issues.