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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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New
textile surfaces to dress the body / Taller de Diseño
e Indumentaria, Escuela de Diseño
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MAGAZINE
ARQ 57 Arid
Zones 
