PAST, INTERPRETED

INTERVENTIONS IN THE HUACAS OF LIMA (2010-2019)

Type: Research Project

Location: Lima, Peru

Year: 2019

Tutors: Wiley Ludeña Urquizo

Miltón Marcelo Puente

Lima has a broad archaeological legacy, popularly known as huacas, earth constructions that served as sacred temples or gathering spaces. Their origin goes from 3000 B.C, with huaca El Paraiso, expanding with cultures like Lima (200 –900 A.C.) and Ychma (800 – 1450 A.C.) who built architectural complexes such as Pachacamac; and on to the arrival of the Incas (1470 – 1535 A.C.), who reused and remodelled these early structures. These occupations permanently changed the valleys and desert landscape of Lima.

However, in the sixteenth century, the violent European colonization tried to erase the native architecture, and by in the nineteenth century, the urban development of the capital of the new Republic worsen the deprecation of the huacas. However, in recent years, the acknowledgement of their influence in the city has changed and so has the way we interact with our heritage.

This research project aims to explore the recent interventions that reveal an effort to relate once again with the past and memory of the city. And in doing so, understand what the interpretation we give to our archaeological heritage today: do we see it as an urban trend to exploit or truly as the reclaim of our identity?

Huacas: intangible heritage and city borders

There is fine line between protecting our heritage and letting it be forgotten. In Lima, the regulations for the conservation of archaeological heritage have taken an intangibility approach, which has led to the creation of borders.

As you walk the city you might not notice what was one a sanctuary or an elevated plaza. Some huacas are hidden behind concrete walls or surrounded by non-spaces, while others have stayed “exposed” and have become backyards or dangerous hideouts, and rarely, some are displayed in the middle of a local park.

Consequently, the interaction between the contemporary layer of the city and the layer of its past has been broken. Yet, this research defends that the survival of this heritage is no fortuity, but a collective decision. And through contemporary interactions with it, these are primitive public spaces can be the remedy to a city that currently suffers a luck of them.

Case Studies

There are different types of interventions, which can be architectonic, urban, artistic, social, etc. Hence, in order to investigate the different results and contemporary interpretations of the past, three case studies are analysed. First, a temporary installation made as an academic project in Pachacamac, second, a public park made as a private real state housing development in Huntinamarca, and third, an event organized by a community around their local huaca, Mangomarca.

Case Study 1

PACHACAMAC PAVILION ETH ZURICH + PUCP

Intervention: “Room for Archeologists and kids in Pachacamac”

Year: 2018

Motive: Architecture Academic Project

Type: Temporary Installation

Users: Site researchers and visiting children

Accessibility: Restricted

Case Study 2

Intervention: Residential Complex

Year: 2015

Motive: Real estate urban development

Type: Public Space

Users: Residents and general public

Accessibility: Public park with restricted

Case Study 3

HUANTINAMARCA HUACA MANGOMARCA CODEPACMA

Complex “Gardens of the Huaca” development project public restricted entrance to huaca

Intervention: XI Huaca Raymi

Year: 2019

Motive: Community organization

Type: Public and communitarian event

Users: Community of Mangomarca and interested external visitors

Accessibility: Free entrance

PACHACAMAC PAVILION ETH ZURICH + PUCP

Pachacamac is the archaeological site of mayor recognition in Lima

It’s located in the south peripheral part of the city, in the margins of the Lurin river. Its territorial expansion and amount of major buildings, is a result of its long occupation during the pre-hispanic period, functioning as an important sacred settlement to various cultures, like Lima, Ychma, Wari and the Inca Empire.

Source: Management Plan of the Archaeological Site of Pachacamac, 2012

Elaboration: Noelia Silva

The intervention was a collaboration between two universities in a workshop to design a contemporary and minimalistic space that served the needs of the site.

The structure is light and temporal. A rectangular roof lands with minimum contact to a empty space next to the Acllawasi building inside the complex. It uses organic materials to have the least impact on the natural landscape, such as timber, woven cane, plastic textiles and adobe bricks.

As a result, the intervention contrasts with the monumental architecture of the site, aggrandizing it, as it provides a space for archaeologists to carry their community outreach program, specially with young visitors.

Giving scenery to communal activities in a territory that was reserved for the past, and making it part of our dynamic culture, rather than a place for contemplation of a distant sanctuary.

However, as great as the concept of the project is, the afterlife of the intervention has not shown its liveness. It helps make visitors feel welcome, but it does no welcome the heritage to the city.

The collective activities proposed remained inside a restricted and hard to access area. Therefore, the community of the Pachacamac district and the neighbours of the archaeological site, do not get to freely interact through the intervention, and the limit it had with the city continues to be no man’s land.

Maranga Complex

Huaca Huantinamarca