Lost Horizons: A Void ReEnchanted

Can a barren post-extraction mining landscape be reenchanted?

Aggregate mining is one of Santiago’s largest industries. Deep, open mining pits can be found in and around the edges of the city, in areas that are constantly being more urbanised.

In Santiago Central Valley between the Andes and the Chilean Coastal Range from up to 2500m in elevation, down to 520m above sea level, the lofty Andes are seen from everywhere in Santiago- while the rest of the city ranges between 0 and 5% slope.

Melon Aridos is an active mining site that is approximately 100 metres deep. It offers a special condition of being one of the only places in the city where one can become completely immersed in the quarry’s own anthropogenic topographical condition. In this site, the Andes are no longer a source of orientation for someone inside. It can become a place where familiarity is lost, but also noise, the bustle of the city, and the horizon.

Here one may experience the unique landscape, the notion of time through material, erosion, and microclimate. It is a place that can become a refuge rather than a void. In it’s post-labor life, could this anthropogenic topography be enchanted for the benefit and enjoyment of people nearby and across the city?

Santiago Central Valley, Chile. Visual Manifesto of the Lost Horizon

Model of constructed elements including circulation ground paths, plazas, and Core-ten steel bridges.

View to Hero Mountain

The project focuses on the first two phases of the rehabilitation of the pit.

Phase one includes topographical analysis, grading, and strategic laying down of footings for structures.

Phase two introduces Core-ten steel bridges supported by angled trestles 30m on center In the manner of large-scale rock and gravel conveyor structures used in the industry. Plazas are created using combination of poured concrete, compacted soil, and gravel.

At this point in the construction, most of the site will be accessible to visitors through the constructed paths. The topography of the site creates many zones of shade and sunlight and valley conditions that support a wide range of plant and animal species from the Bosque Esclerofilo of Chile’s mediterranean region.

The next phase will include necessary soil rehabilitation, with native species seeded for grund cover. Shade loving plant species such as the Peumo and Bollen will be grown on the south-facing zones and sheltered areas.

Shade loving plant species such as the Peumo and Bollen will be grown on the south-facing zones and sheltered areas.

Sun-loving species such as the beloved Chagual and the red Quisco will be strategically introduced to north-facing and exposed zones.

As visitor’s discover the pit, look-out points, plazas, stages and pathways can be interpreted at various scales. As a community or as individuals, we can explore and re-negotiate the relationship between horizons and orientation that is normally so clear for the residents of Santiago.