I'x Tower | Revalorization of Tulum's Archeological Zone

For the Mayas, the cardinal points had a closed connection with the divine world, their gods were related to astronomical bodies. The explanation of their urban layer and orientations derives from their beliefs regarding the Earth plane, which they thought it to be flat and of a square surface with four major points located in each corner -the cardinal points- that were surrounding a fifth element in the middle, denominated the center of the world.
The overall condition of the site is good, most of the ruins are well preserved but the existing paths are just dirt and they present no concept or axis as guidelines, they cross the entire site but without an intention behind.
The intervention retakes the “cosmogonic square” and consists in the generation of a new urban layer and the insertion of an astronomical observatory (I’x tower) which would be the intersection point between the past and the present.
The urban design consists in three major interventions: new paths, area differentiation and the restoration of the platforms and delimitation of the ruins.
Restoring the urban layer was the first step but the remaining question was: how to bring back Tulum to the contemporary time? That’s how the I’x Tower was created; an astronomical tower whose concept departs from the Maya’s horizontal and vertical idea of the world, the astronomical phenomena alignments, the insertion of architecture into nature and the respect of it.