carved travertine transforms paving, furniture, and planting across spanish historic old town

Travertine Extends Banyoles’ Historic Urban Landscape in Spain

In Banyoles, Spain, MIAS Architects completes the latest phase of its long-term refurbishment of the historic town center, extending the intervention to Plaça d’en Ges and the surrounding streets of Sant Martirià and Sant Antoni. The project continues an urban strategy developed over several decades, using locally sourced lacustrine travertine as the primary material for streets, public spaces, furniture, and landscape elements.

The project began with an initial sketch approximately 30 years ago, followed by the first construction phase two decades ago. The latest intervention continues the approach established in the original scheme, in which travertine was used to repave medieval streets and squares while exposing the historic water canals and creating a continuous pedestrian landscape. In the new phase, the material is extended beyond the horizontal plane to form benches, edges, planting beds, and changes in level.

all images by Pau López

Carved Stone Reorganizes Plaça d’en Ges and Surrounding Streets

Large travertine blocks are cut, fractured, and carved to reveal different layers within the stone. Their surfaces alternate between smooth horizontal planes and rough vertical cuts, creating a material language that references the surrounding facades, water channels, and geological strata. Around the existing plane tree and cast-iron fountain in Plaça d’en Ges, the travertine forms a continuous perimeter that defines a smaller urban space within the square. The former traffic island is reorganized as a pedestrian area, with the stone simultaneously functioning as paving, seating, landscape edging, and planting infrastructure.

The intervention by MIAS Architects design studio extends the same material palette across the square and adjacent streets, allowing the individual elements to remain part of a coherent urban system. Emerging stone-cutting technologies are combined with traditional craftsmanship and on-site adaptation, enabling individual blocks to be configured according to their specific position and function.

The project treats paving, furniture, and planting as interconnected components of the public realm. Travertine blocks establish thresholds, seating areas, level changes, and small planted spaces, allowing the material to operate at different scales throughout the intervention. The streets and square are reorganized as a continuous surface that clarifies pedestrian movement and softens changes in level. Previously fragmented or residual areas are incorporated into the pedestrian network, transforming narrow streets into civic routes and defining Plaça d’en Ges as a more contained urban space. The material strategy also maintains a close relationship with the scale of the surrounding historic buildings. Minimal metal detailing and discreet lighting complement the travertine without introducing additional visual elements that compete with the existing urban fabric.

MIAS Architects completes the latest phase of Banyoles’ historic center refurbishment

Long-Term Material Strategy by MIAS Continues Across Banyoles

The latest phase extends the architectural language established by the earlier refurbishment, using the same local stone in new forms and applications. Its transformation from paving into seating, retaining edges, planting beds, and other urban elements demonstrates how a consistent material system can adapt to changing spatial requirements while maintaining continuity across different phases of construction. By combining digital stone fabrication with traditional techniques and site-specific adjustments, MIAS Architects continues to develop the potential of lacustrine travertine as both a construction material and an organizing element for public space. The completed intervention reinforces the long-term strategy of establishing a coherent pedestrian landscape across Banyoles’ historic center while connecting the town’s material history with contemporary methods of urban design.

lacustrine travertine extends across Plaça d’en Ges and surrounding streets

the local stone forms paving, seating, planting beds, and landscape edges

travertine repaves historic streets while revealing the town’s water canals

travertine surfaces alternate between smooth planes and rough carved cuts

the stone detailing references Banyoles’ facades, water channels, and geology

stone blocks are configured according to their position and function within the square

planting, furniture, and paving form a continuous public landscape

digital stone cutting is combined with traditional craftsmanship and on-site adaptation

travertine edges define thresholds, seating areas, and planted spaces

the same local stone is adapted across multiple phases of the refurbishment

cut stone reveals different geological layers within the travertine blocks

Banyoles’ historic center continues to develop through a single evolving material system

project info:

name: Banyoles Old Town Refurbishment, last phase

architect: MIAS Architects | @miasarchitects

location: Banyoles, Spain

photographer: Pau López | @paulopez11

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. See more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: Christina Vergopoulou | designboom

The post carved travertine transforms paving, furniture, and planting across spanish historic old town appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.