Rafael Alberti and his wife were saved
by a Ibicenian fig tree.
Pues estábamos en casa sentados, me
acuerdo perfectamente, estábamos sentados en una higuera, en una de
esas higueras de que te he hablado, de sombra profunda, sentados en
las ramas, María Teresa y yo, y de pronto vimos - nuestra casa
quedaba a unos treinta metros de la higuera-, vimos a una pareja de
la Guardia Civil que llegaba a casa y que venía realmente a
buscarnos (…) A nosotros nos ha salvado la sombra de una higuera
ibicenca.
The fig tree is a symbol in the
Balearic Islands, but especially in Formentera. The fig tree is a
tree that warns when the spring comes, it’s an explosion in summer,
it smells, it is refugee, it is sweetness… Even we dare to say that
the fig tree is a metaphor for the traditional architecture, the one
that inspires Project 14 HPP Sant Ferran’s houses in Formentera.
Because the traditional architecture
has been a constant reference in this project, not as form, but as a
work philosophy, from the lack of resources and with what you have at
your fingertips. Like it’s happened with Formentera’s fig trees.
The peasant farmers realised that the
fig trees had difficulties to grow upwards because og the strong of
wind that blows in this island without mountains. That’s why, in a
particular moment, the solution was to place forks down their
branches (the forks are bifurcated sticks that hold the branches of
the tree and assemble vines.
As time went by, they experienced that,
with only one trunk, a fig tree produced few more figs. Moreover, the
forks were used as a way to pick the higher figs, and animals and
people found a shadow in order to avoid the sun. Everything were
advantages.
This way, the peasant farmer shaped the
fig tree respecting the tree and the environment, adapting and
improving it. Take a look at Na Blanca d’en Mestre, the most
amazing fig tree around the island.
Inspiration and wisdom come many times
from traditional architecture, which sometimes are like a glasses to
look closely and not to lose track.
*Photos, Luna Pérez Visairas.
*Production, Marià Castelló, Na
Blanca d’en Mestre author, with Víctor Rahola and Stefano
Cortellaro.
