MAGAZINE ARQ 57 Arid Zones

Readings | Works and Project | Essays and Documents | Nexus

   

 

READINGS

Garden city suburbs in the Sonoran Desert / Ignacio San Martín
Lima: Desert Baroque / Willey Ludeña
Human occupation of the Atacama Desert landscape in the Antofagasta Region / Victoria Castro, Carlos Aldunate, Varinia Varela
Photographs. II Region, Chile / Fernando Maldonado

Convinced of the need to incorporate economic criteria and curb the prevailing trend in our culture towards consumption and over-exploitation of resources, we are drawn to reflect on the relationship between architecture and environment in the hottest, driest areas of America. The implacable deserts of Perú, Chile and Arizona, settings in the past for pre-Colombian settlements and nitrate mines, are the stage for the projects we present in this edition. Defined by a hostile environment they have nevertheless created an architecture of shadow, open spaces and gardens that make a virtue of scarce water and abundant sun.
 
WORKS AND PROJECT

El Palqui School, Montepatria, Chile / José Cruz O., Ana Turell
The construction of a dam in the Elqui River valley means new possibilities for agriculture and the founding of new settlements populated by former inhabitants of the flooded zone and newcomers to the area. This school is the largest public building in one of these new enclaves. A symbol of the community, its materiality and design are in keeping with the area’s fragile equilibrium.

Puritama thermal spring, Chile / Germán Del Sol
A rare source of water in the Chilean desert, this thermal spring has not been harnessed as a productive resource for agriculture. Instead, it has been used since ancient times for recreation. This intervention attempts to maintain the soft and primitive condition of the exceptionally humid soil as a place of rest and leisure for locals as well as visitors.

Quinta Monroy, Chile / Equipo Elemental
The Quinta Monroy project is a sort of preview of the Elemental Chile competition that could generate a model suitable for wide application. Incorporating small-scale ensembles in the urban fabric, it would settle families in their original place of residence, stimulate social integration rather than segregation and include participation by residents in general decision-making. All this as well as delivering a revitalized and viable vision of social housing for Chile’s coastal desert.

Three Arizona projects, U.S.A. / Rick Joy
The dry air and gentle climate of certain parts of the American West made them an ideal setting for experimentation by architects like Albert Frey and Rudolph Schindler during the 20th century. Various levels of relationship to the outside, innovative use of materials and new ways of handling light and shadow are some of the themes raised by these architectural incursions. The work of Rick Joy continues and expands upon these earlier explorations.

Playa Bonita House, Perú / Alexia León
The arid coastal climate is both a limitation and an opportunity. The lack of precipitation and low temperature variation due to the closeness of the ocean make possible an elemental architecture that displays a certain brutal minimalism. Dispensing with articulations, this weekend house features courtyards, rooms and patios that relate to the sky and the wide horizons of desert and sea.

U.A.I. landscaping, Chile / Ximena Nazal, Teodoro Fernández
The Andes foothills in the Santiago area have a number of fundamental problems typical of dryland areas. Though of great scenic value, these slopes are clearly vulnerable to soil erosion and the effects of snow melt runoff descending through various mountain ravines. The planting of low-water use species that grow rapidly can help consolidate both the vegetation layer of the soil and the visual corridors that order the landscape.

La Reserva landscaping, Chile / Teodoro Fernández
The Santiago landscape reflects in large measure the determination of its inhabitants to impose their will. In an area with four rainy months and a long dry season, local residents over the years have created an irrigated garden watered by a system of trenches, canals, wells and reservoirs. Here we are at the beginning of a new expression of shaping the city’s landscape, not through an imposed transformation so much as an understanding of the natural processes and relationships between rain, flooding, soil and vegetation species.



Elementary housing studio, Chile / Tomás Cortese

A vertical structure built from prefabricated electricity poles is the starting point for this intervention in a neighborhood on the periphery of Iquique. The project involves a series of operations aimed at improving the settlement’s livability, taking into account a climate that allows many domestic activities to take place outdoors and the importance of shade for public spaces in arid zones. It also introduces the vertical dimension in ensembles and a new growth coordinate for housing units.


 
ESSAYS AND DOCUMENTS

Desert's ethic / Álvaro Malo
In the Tucson valley landscape, rock formation, watercourses, hills and canyons define a space that is the habitat for a silent ecosystem. The presence of people and certain human behavior patterns foreign to the reality of the local territory raise a series of questions about adaptation that are yet to be answered.

Occupation of Asia Beach, Lima, Peru / Paulo Dam
One of the consequences of the sense of insecurity in cities like Lima, a feeling created both by personal experience and the media, is the proliferation of gated communities that in various ways reproduce the protected environment so many are nostalgic for. The Asia beaches on the Lima desert coast are the site of the most radical experiments in contemporary Peruvian architecture, in communities where control seems to be the dominant concept.

Santiago Arid Zone / Rodrigo Pérez de Arce
The urban tree as mitigation? Not true! Perez de Arce debunks the notion of “environmental impact” so dear to certain schools of thought in urbanism, and defends the planet’s arid zones as the origin of gardens and cities. A rethink of the use of trees in Santiago’s public spaces is the point of departure for a discussion centered on the relationship between drought, shadow, layout and the ability of gardens and architecture to generate urban environmental quality.

Modern architecture of nitrate mining camps / Max Aguirre
The nitrate towns of the Atacama Desert serve as an example for an analysis of how new technologies and a vision focused on productive activities and their processes gave rise to new human settlements in inhospitable corners of the extreme north of Chile. These 19th century mining communities constituted a miniature laboratory for the birth of modernity.

Rain water drainage in semiarid zones / Bonifacio Fernández
Many contemporary habitat conflicts are related to the progressive urbanization of land. Flooding aggravated by the inability of paved-over soils to absorb rain is a powerful example of this interaction. The issues of erosion, soil richness and the water table are directly linked to urban expansion in the context of the aridity of the Santiago region. New paradigms propose solutions to these problems.

Water in Chilean arid zones / Ricardo Astaburuaga G.
The debate over water is no doubt destined to become ever more central to the world’s priorities. Unless there are radical changes in international policies on global warming, consumption and recycling, the shortage of water will be felt everywhere. What is the logic of aridity, and how does it relate to precipitation, rivers and air humidity? How does it intervene in the development of culture? This article introduces the relationship between water supply, landscape, urbanism and the environment.

 
NEXUS

New textile surfaces to dress the body / Taller de Diseño e Indumentaria, Escuela de Diseño