Jerez de la Frontera (Spain) is an Andalusian city rich in history and tradition. Known for its world-famous wines, fine horses, fertile countryside, and as the birthplace of flamenco (UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage), Jerez also stands out for its unique natural conditions. The region is notably windy, and the city lies within an extensive area of albariza soil—a type of terrain highly prized in viticulture for its exceptional capacity to retain water and nutrients. Another distinctive feature is the air temperature: the summer of 2025 was exceptionally hot, with Jerez registering Spain’s highest recorded temperature of 45.8°C. Faced with increasingly extreme heat, the city is seeking innovative environmental solutions to enhance the liveability of its public spaces during the hottest months. In the context of climate change and the energy transition, new infrastructures such as wind turbines and photovoltaic (PV) plants are rapidly proliferating.
Their expansion is generating tensions among competing land uses, economic activities, and landscape perceptions. What for some represents an evolution of the landscape, aligned with decarbonisation goals, is perceived by others as the deterioration of a locally rooted heritage—often associated with externally driven investments and limited community embeddedness. What remains certain is that Jerez is currently undergoing an active and contested process of landscape reconfiguration.
PALIMPSEST Landscape Pilot (Jerez de la Frontera), along with SONE – Songs Of Nearby Earth, proposed by Estelle Julian from Culturama (winner of the CREATIVE DIALOGUES Open Call), explores the territory of Jerez by integrating local knowledge, landscape traditions, and cultural expressions. The project engages with the materiality and life cycle of a ceramic object (the zambomba musical instrument), the ritual and its lyrics (the zambomba celebration), and renaturalisation practices such as vine-arbour canopies (emparrados). SONE creates spaces for reflection on pressing contemporary challenges—including climate adaptation, the energy transition, and landscape transformation—and translates these explorations into concrete actions. These include a contemporary reinterpretation of the zambomba, both as a ritual and musical instrument, and interventions in public space through Nature–Culture Based Solutions that draw on the traditional know-how of vine arbours as devices for climate mitigation.
Delve into the Jerez de la Frontera landscape pilot and the SONE project by watching the following video:
Published on: March 30, 2026
