BIM techniques – by their name in English – information modeling for construction, based on an intelligent system, digital photogrammetry and 3D scanning. These are some of the proposals used by researchers from the Polytechnic University of Cartagena (UPCT) in the study of two of the surveillance and defense towers built on the coast between the 16th and 17th centuries. This is a comprehensive project of consolidation and recomposition and solutions for the recovery of the Torre del Negro, in El Algar, and the Torre del Rame, located in the municipality of Los Alcázares.
The Torre del Negro dates back to 1585. It is protected as a monument, but is currently “in a dilapidated state of conservation, in danger of collapse,” warned the professor in the area of Graphic Expression of Architecture, Josefina García León. In these works, the researchers used digital photogrammetry techniques and a 3D laser scanner, compatible with classical topography. It was built to receive and transfer warnings from earth towers to protect the population, especially farmers.
The researchers have designed a comprehensive plan to consolidate and enhance these unique defensive buildings. The proposal involves its architectural recomposition and converting it into a multi-use building that can be visited. “The tower would be used as a real example of the importance of the defensive system designed by Kings Charles I and Philip II in the repopulation of the entire coastal strip of the Mediterranean and, in particular, in the Region of Murcia,” indicated the researcher.
Three lookout posts
In the surroundings of the Mar Menor, only three watchtowers remain: the Rame, the Negro and the Torre de Oviedo, or the Chichao, in La Puebla, which is also in poor condition.
All of them are part of the defensive plan carried out by Philip II's military engineers to armor the Spanish coast with towers. «Of the twelve watchtowers built on the coast of the Region, some remain preserved, such as that of Santa Elena, in La Azohía, but in the surroundings of the Mar Menor and La Manga, the majority have been lost or were converted into lighthouses» added Professor García León. This is the case of the El Estacio lighthouse, the old tower of San Miguel, and that of Cabo de Palos, the old tower of San Antonio. Besides. The Salinas regional park, in San Pedro, housed the El Pinatar tower.
The Torre del Rame, located in the municipality of Los Alcázares, has also been the subject of this study developed at the Polytechnic. “Although it is a monument protected as an Asset of Cultural Interest (BIC), it is currently in a state of degradation and abandonment and suffers from the passage of time and vandalism,” added García León, principal researcher of the Thermal Analysis And Geomatics group at the UPCT.
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