THE OTHER VALPARAISO
MARC6000 Portfolio Natalie Dungey Mengting Guan
THE OTHER VALPARAISO Infrastr ucture and Community Center USYD Thesis Studio Tutor: Gonzalo Valiente Oriol 2021 Semester 2
A political fantasy developed through spatial interruption is introduced as the “Other” Valparaiso in the form of a wall and a series of sanctuaries. The city of Valparaiso, a Pacific port in Chile, is fragmented naturally by its topography and politically by the neoliberal economic regime. Definitive boundaries segregate the land and its people into different levels of importance based on their connectivity with the port and the UNESCO heritage site. Social gentrification and disparity between the rich and poor, the significant and insignificant therefore impose Valparaiso’s living condition, forcing the poor to reside and fill the hills with informal settlements. The movement of ascending and descending the slope become the natural rhythm of Valparaiso. Routes and methods of circulations are therefore the manifestation of how inhabitants of the slope construct and form communities. In order to bring the hills into the foreground, an inhabitable wall and sanctuaries that encourage unproductive space are proposed to speculate the possibilities of decentralisation and monumentalizing the periphery. The methodology of collaging the past, present and future of Valparaiso offers alternative outcomes that benefit the intervention by breaking imposed rhythms and logics. This exploration attempts to redeem significance and identity of the periphery through challenging the city centre with the idea of celebration. Negative aspects of division and destruction are identified in the process as well. The “Other” Valparaiso is therefore a study of revolutionary architectural exploration that sees political tension as opportunities and encourage criticisms.
SITE MAPPING
01 Fire mapping
02 Public Space and Empty Space
A site mapping that marks the boundary of previous fires is therefore analyzed to determine dangerous and safety zones.
This is a mapping on the locations of these empty places, including plazas, soccer fields and remanent façade of empty ruins.
03 Boundary Mapping
04 Infrastructure Mapping
These intersecting Boundaries reveal the fact of spacial fragmentation in Valparaiso.
The income boundary create a new ribbon of the city, which segregates Valparaiso from its center of neoliberal urban planning.
SITE MAPPING
The site mappings address the spatial, social structures caused by gentrification and wildfires. The mapping of empty spaces also marks the location of intervening wall and sanctuaries. These monuments are developed through collages of architectures around the world. Through this spatial exploration, a more comprehensive and radical design is generated to suit the different needs of the community. The penetrable wall promotes a new connection network through transportation, garbage treatment, and large communal infrastructures, which will be the new centre of the “Other” Valparaiso at the peripherals. Micro operations of vertically developed sanctuaries which serves as open public squares and functions accordingly to the neighbourhood needs is as well proposed along the ribbon. It will offer a disconnection in life, a moment of contemplation, a place where people connect and express all their negativity through the ritual of Burning Judas.
Indifference and ignorance of the rich and powerful
Shocking revelation until it is too late
Water used against protestors, not wildfires
Soldiers expelled unarmed protesters
The entrance of the sanctuary
Decentralization of Valparaiso
New blood developed by cutting Valparaiso based on an income dividing line
New network supplies nutrition to the peripheral
New life grows from the corpse of Valparaiso
Prepare for the Festival
Climb the steps to the viewing platform
View from observation deck
Festival Parade
Celebrate the Burning Juda Festival
Sanctuary Intervention Daytime
Sanctuary Intervention Night-time
On the suspension railway
View from the coastal area
Part I : Wall Boundary of Protection
The concept of the periphery and the centre is defined through boundaries. Through the techniques of instrumental rationality, the state and capital draw artificial boundaries to satisfy the interests of those in power. This is the underlying logic of Valparaiso's neoliberal urban regeneration. Within the UNESCO site, Valparaiso is a holiday paradise created for tourists. The waterfront area is isolated from the city by traffic lines and is employed for export business. People who live in the mountainous area are excluded as marginalised groups by this urban regime. In this context, people on the periphery are outside the border and those with vested interests are inside. However, the relationships between inside and outside the border will be flipped if we build a border wall for the people outside the border. This wall will exist as the symbol of protection.This border will connect the 42 hills of Valparaiso. In the urban scale blueprint, it is an 8km long urban ribbon. Our design select part of the wall for design development.
Iconic Building
View
Circulation
Multi-layer Plan
BUILDING TYPOLOGY
MASTER PLAN
Sect
Function
Theatre
Pocket City Farms
tion
Analysis
Drive into Community Center
Under the wall
01. Urban Farm Tower
This is the infrastructure for the second phase of the project. It combines a transport hub with urban production (urban agriculture). The central area of the tower is the lift to the railway station. The spiral-shaped additional structure allows for the cultivation of agricultural crops. Small-scale agricultural production is very important for the dispersed community of Valparaiso.
03. Theatre
This is the infrastructure for the third phase of the project. Valparaiso is home to a number of cultural communities who host a wide variety of performances each week. Classical orchestral music lovers need a large concert hall, sound therapists need a meditative small to medium-sized space, and underground bands on tour need a soundproof space. This large theatre is inspired by the structure of the Fun Palace and is flexible enough to accommodate a wide range of performances.
05. Market
This is the infrastructure for the third phase of the project. Most of the markets in Valparaiso are located in the urban area and there are only a few scattered grocery shops on the hill. It is important for the people on the hill to have a market, which will improve their lives to a large extent. There are two community buildings in the area where the market is located, which we will retain in the market.
02. Floating Space
This is the infrastructure for the second phase of the project. Once the transport system is complete, the other valparaiso will need to create infrastructure zones to improve the inhabitants' quality of life and provide space for the production of new economies. These Floating Spaces will be leased to community workshops and new economies (waste treatment plants, green building materials production factories, etc.)
04. Suspension Railway
This is the infrastructure for the first phase of the project. It connects the 42 mountains of Valparaiso on the hillside, laying the foundations for the development of the other valparaiso. It was created for connectivity, but ended up in the form of a wall.
06. Sunken Garden
This is the infrastructure for the third phase of the project. The mountains of Valparaiso have a lot of vegetation, but they are usually situated on steep slopes. There is no way for people to get there and relax. We intend to create a Sunken garden as a public space below the new community centre (Cherry Blossom). People can walk and rest here.
07. Community Center
This is the infrastructure for the third phase of the project. The shape of this community centre is borrowed from Cero amid 9's project Cherry Blossom. The original project was a community centre designed to celebrate the festival of cherry blossoms. The narrative fits in well with the festival of Judas in Valparaiso, where we hope people can strengthen their community cohesion. At the same time its exaggerated form would break the dreary atmosphere on the hill.
09. Museum
This is the infrastructure for the third phase of the project.The most efficient way to get to understand a city is to visit its museums. But Valparaiso's museums are attractions designed for tourists. We wanted to create a museum to commemorate local commmunity events, where the memories that truly belong to the city would be stored.
10. Dome - Botanical Garden
This is the infrastructure for the third phase of the project.This structure is borrowed from the geodesic dome in Fowler.This large building will provide a spacious public space for the community.Underneath the dome is a Botanical garden.We hope that local residents will take advantage of the botanical garden to establish a platform for communication with scholars from the University of Valparaiso and to further develop community agriculture.
11. Floating Patio
This is the infrastructure for the third phase of the project.The floating patio will add depth to the space and enrich the visual experience at ground level. At the same time, the patio, like a floating boundary, will make people on the ground more inclined to move around below the patio, creating another possibility for community interaction.
08. The Truth Walk
This is the infrastructure for the third phase of the project. This walkway extends from the sunken park at the bottom of the hill and leads through the market to a copper-coloured building. This building is an inverted mine well. It is a caricature, or a warning, of the economic situation in Valparaiso, which is highly dependent on the export of resources.
12. Observation Deck
This is the infrastructure for the third phase of the project.The suspension railway is suspended high above the ground. The aerial view is so valuable that we will build several aerial walks along the other Valparaiso. It allows people on the mountain, across human-made borders, to see the ocean every day
Section
Function Analysis Phase One
Phase Two
Phase Three
The construction of the border was divided into 4 phases. In the first phase, it was a suspension railway that ran through Valparaiso.
It was realised that railway alone would not attract people and resources to the mountain area. A number of floating space have been built along the railways.
As the economy developed, a variety of large infrastructures began to occupy the Other Valparaiso. These infrastructures break the old daily routine, creating rituals for the urban
Phase Four Occupy the Other Valparaiso
Phase Four Structural illustration
Phase Four
With the completion of the third phase, The Other Valparaiso has attracted a large population.People begin to inhabitat the legs of the wall,creating a new city around it, offering possibilities and opportunities.
Isometric
Structural illustration
Street View
From the old Valparaiso
Street View
From the old Valparaiso
Street View
From the old Valparaiso
Street View
From the old Valparaiso
Phrase Three Artistic Render
Part II : Sanctuary Celebrating Valparaiso’s Duality
A series of micro-operating sanctuaries are developed along the ribbon. They explore the rhythm and friction of empty public spaces such as plazas, parks, cliffs and burnt urban ruins, places where the government has neglected its public infrastructure. It attempts to join fragmented paths together and extends one’s experience of time through festivals and rituals, offering a short relief from life. Sanctuaries are positioned between paths, serving as new junctions that allow community gatherings. At day, it stages neighbourhood activities, meetings, and sports practices; at night, it holds celebrations and rituals that break daily routines. One of the many festivals celebrated in Valparaiso is the Burning Judas where individuals gather and burn away negativity. This festival not only connect different infrastructure in the sense of an urban scale, but also bond communities through celebration. It is a ritual that symbolizes social cohesion and collective catharsis. Hence, developing the basis for the sanctuaries. Sanctuaries also focus on creating unproductive space that offers momentary pause, a duration in time to stabilize the peripheral against the violence of exploitation and rapid urban growth. It is designed for the citizens of the peripheral, for the misfits, and for those who could not or do not have the privilege to enjoy public infrastructures. To play with Valparaiso’s duality of different day and night lifestyles, the sanctuary reflects the city’s theatrical character through Baroque architectural design expression and materiality. Metal mesh curtains used for spatial separation between circulation routes and amphitheatres that open to the horizon symbolizes the opening and closing of each performance played by the citizens. The sanctuary therefore represents the silent sound, the in-between pauses in the rhythm of Valparaiso.
The Rhythm Location of Sanctuaries
PLAN
STRUCTURAL GRID
DAY AND NIGHT DUALITY
Part II : Sanctuary Celebrating Valparaiso’s Duality
Sanctuaries serve as Valparaiso’s missing public infrastructure function accordingly to the site’s circulation and neighbourhood needs. Since Valparaiso is naturally and politically segregated, steps and stairs, ascensors, and labyrinthine lanes become the essential circulation and only method to inhabit the hills.
Rising and falling, twisting and turning become the rhythm of the city of Valparaiso. Hence, the existing circulations inform the form and function of each sanctuary. To create an indirect yet visible connection, 6 key elements are used in the construction of all sanctuaries.
THANK YOU
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MARC6000 Portfolio Natalie Dungey Mengting Guan