The Toledo School of Architecture of the University of Castile-La Mancha obtained the first prize for the works of the Spanish Architecture Biennale 2025 thanks to the restoration and consolidation project of the Tomelloso sandpit caves. The price was … produced as part of the Biennale organized at the Térmica Cultural de Ponferrada, a former industrial building rehabilitated for cultural purposes in the Bierzo region.
This recognition highlights work focused on a set of underground excavations dating from the beginning of the 20th centurywhen sand mining for terrazzo factories became a key economic activity in Tomelloso. It was a subsistence economy lost weight because of the developmentalism of the sixtiestime when many of these caves were abandoned, blocked or “muddy”, a circumstance which gradually worsened their state of conservation.
Unlike traditional underground cellars, these sand caves lack of inherent structural stabilitysince they were excavated without town planning or technical regulations. The result is an irregular, chaotic frame that extends in multiple directions following the grain of the material. Some of the cavities already mapped reach spans of up to twelve meters and lengths of forty meterswhile others were dug on two levels and, after the collapse of the intermediate layers, present particularly high heights.
Agreements with UCLM
Social alarm generated by several landslides and the fear that this would happen in a chain led the Tomelloso town hall to sign in 2022 a first agreement with the University of Castile-La Mancha, endowed with 210,000 euros, to map and study the condition of the caves. This research made it possible to obtain an initial mechanical characterization of the terrain, to formulate a collapse model and to define intervention criteria aimed at safety and conservation.
Work continued in June 2024 with the signing of a second agreement between the two institutions, lasting three years and a municipal contribution of 336,664 euros. Thanks to this funding, the university was able to acquire a new ground penetrating radar which allows three-dimensional surveys of cavities and progress in their recognition and detailed inspection.
The project also includes the creation of a early warning network thanks to a continuous monitoring system. This device envisages the monitoring of environmental variables such as humidity and temperature, as well as movements inside the caves, through the installation of clinometers, telemeters and crackmeters that transmit data remotely.
The consolidation works now awarded include the construction of very special factory pillars in diabolo shapethat is to say much wider at the base and capital than at the center. Moreover, practice led to perfection. The first models made were square in plan, but ultimately they opted for make them circularbecause structurally they work much better.
Juan Alonso And Jose Antonio Aguado They lead the multidisciplinary group that works in the field, which also includes the architects. Araceli Tarraga, Juan Ramon Alfaro And Javier Velleswho was in charge of both the historical study of the sandbox caves and the intervention, Joaquin Vargas And Alejandro Jiménez And Jesus Gonzalez-Arteaga.
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