most carefully preserved components, which are located, let's say, at a second interior location.
Osvaldo Moreno Flores Architect University of Chile. Master in Landscape, Environment and City and Doctor in Architecture and Urban Planning from the National University of La Plata. Academic Deputy Director and Associate Professor of the School of Architecture of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Director of the UC Green Landscapes and Infrastructure R&D Laboratory. Responsible researcher in landscape projects, urban green infrastructure, nature-based solutions, resilience and adaptation to climate change. Researcher member of the Coastal Observatory Center and the UC Energy Center. Guest professor in Undergraduate and Postgraduate Programs in Chile, Argentina, Peru, Spain, the United States and Belgium. Professional activity developed in the fields of planning, design and management of urban and territorial projects, landscape architecture, sustainable mobility, equipment, green areas and tourism, in urban and rural contexts, with recognition and awards at a national and international level.
Yves Besançon R According to these “drawings” a canal runs above the park and below is the river. That canal is discharging the water in a stream to the park. Is it like that? Osvaldo Moreno R That is indeed the case. The site is called Isla Cautín because it is a space of land located between two watercourses: the main channel of the Cautín River, and an extension, the Pichicautín estuary, which over time was channelized. Today it is a sort of channel that drops from the river several hundred meters before and creates the limit or northern edge of this dry land. The Pichicautín estuary, when channelized, became a drainage channel for the city's rainwater runoff over time and overflows when rainfall increases. The project creates an intake. This was worked on, of course, with the Ministry of Public Works and the Directorate of Hydraulic Works (DOH). This hydraulic system creates retentions and laminations that progressively create a controlled flooding condition. José Rosas R This magazine will probably reach the Temuco authority. Wouldn't it be the opportunity, Osvaldo, to mention to the Municipality, the Governor's Office, MINVU, and MOP to help connect Cautín Island Park with the city of Temuco much more? Because it is surrounded by a kind of highway, it has an almost peripheral position. So that the authorities become aware that there is something there that needs to be done, not in the park but in the city. Osvaldo Moreno R There is a fundamental issue in no longer under- standing parks as the exclusive domain of a ministerial portfolio. In Chile, these initiatives are associated with MINVU's budgets and portfolio, which in recent decades has done an enormous amount of work to promote these types of projects. However, today urban parks are the key to facing the challenges of sustainability, resilience, and adaptation to climate change and also to promoting urban development economies in cities that are depressed. At the same time, they provide social integration spaces that contribute to overcoming certain basic problems that cities often have. The fact of listing it implies that the institutional actors involved in its management are no longer exclusively linked to a ministerial portfolio, but are intersectoral projects, as is the case with major infrastructures that the country's territories will have to deal with in the future. In terms of design and implementation, we could say that the pos- itive effects that the park has had and the projection it has in terms of its impact on good practices go hand in hand with articulations that have occurred due to certain fortuitous conditions, but that one can think about more structurally. The ability to connect these project ex- periences with articulations, for example, between municipalities and universities, which is what we have done. Here there is an outstanding municipal team linked to managing urban parks that has been working in an innovative and integrated way together with other municipal departments, but we also have the park as a real research hub that is used by universities in the region and is visited by foreign univer- sities. Therefore, it is very important to give continuity to the design approach in the phases after closing the bidding process. Often the design teams are fragmented. Yves Besançon R We agree with that. It is unacceptable to disassociate the designers from the execution and even later on from the project´s operation. Osvaldo Moreno R It is important to establish these conditions. These are areas that can be corrected because they do not imply a large in- vestment of resources, but rather an even ethical commitment. Those of us who establish a project must be present and responsible at the moment when the execution takes place. !
Rodrigo Werner Sánchez
Geopark, a Park Extracted From a Rock In Tocopilla, this park was designed and built in intense dialogue with nature and the local community in a sector where there are very few public spaces to enjoy. Since it was founded, it has been clear that in northern Chile rocks are part of the area's identity.
Interview by: Sebastián Rozas & Alberto Teixido Edition: Soledad Miranda
In 2023 CAW Arquitectos won the Urban Contribution Award (PAU) for the Best Public Use Space Project for the Geopark Geological Park in Tocopilla. It is located at the foot of the coastal bluff in the southern part of the city, in the middle of a large housing area, the first stage includes an area of 8,500 m2. Rodrigo Werner, partner of CW Arquitectos, spoke to AOA magazine detailing the design process and the social effects that the park has had on the area. “We have been working for more than ten years in project consulting, and we have more than 10 large-scale public projects throughout Chile. I think that the PAU award is very important because it gives relevance to projects with limited visibility, but which have had a tremendous impact on the communities. They are projects related to public spaces, green areas, and nature. For us it is more important to create habitats for the communities than just built spaces,” says Rodrigo Werner. “The Geopark project is interesting because it addresses contem- porary issues of resilience, heritage, minimal maintenance, low water resources, and above all, the most complex thing is that it is in an area of extreme aridity. The cities in the Norte Grande of Chile, being located in the most arid desert in the world, with strong mining and industrial developments, present unique difficulties for human settlements. Of the five cities declared as a sacrifice zone, one is Tocopilla, and the other, a
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