Competition entry, 2020 / Uyuni salt flat, Bolivia
The Uyuni Salt Flat faces a pressing challenge:: the high water consumption associated with lithium extraction makes this resource a central concern when designing a project for the site. Because of this, we chose to make it the starting point of our design process.
Our proposal is structured around three main axes: the collective experience of space – which defines the scale; architecture as infrastructure – which contributes to ecology; and the construction of a memorial of the present – which generates a new nature and challenges its visitors. Using an existing depression in the landscape as a mold, a concrete funnel is defined that, like the hollow that once shaped it, will collect the rainwater it receives. After being cast, disassembled and transported in parts, it will be reassembled . On its inner surface – made of a permanent formwork of stones – a belt will be built using those same stones. This belt will contain shelters for the transient inhabitants of the basin. Above it, a second funnel, similar in construction to the first, will capture additional rainfall and protect it from evaporation, while also acting as a roof for the collective experience of those who take shelter beneath it.
The resulting form stands as a Tower of Babel turned on its head. Its exterior aspires to erase every trace of human intervention. Its interior becomes a phenomenological temple, one that stimulates human experience. Just as the original Babel gave rise to the myth of linguistic confusion, this inversion represents a desire to build a device that sparks reconciliation. Surpassing language through an almost primal experience of space will be the way in which this memorial of the present becomes a place for rediscovering ourselves – this time, as a community.
People will enter it somewhat timidly from below. Once inside, they will look with awe upon the great mirror of still water and gather around it. They will celebrate it, while celebrating themselves and their coming together. And when the day ends, they will retreat to the perimeter of the space that shelters them. There, passing through the niches, they will rediscover the salt flat. From this new height, they will look at it with different eyes, marveling at its vastness. Their awareness of the water, and its persistence in memory, will shape the way they perceive it. Perhaps, for a brief moment, they will sense themselves as part of a whole.
Authors
Estudio qo
Emilio Farias
Salvador Ferreyra
Santiago Ghione
Franco Pozzi
Project
“Refugio en el salar”
Competition
Entry
Location
Uyuni salt flat, Bolivia
Year
2020