THE LOCATION
Rural Plaza, is located in a private condominium in the south of Chile, in the town of Frutillar, Los Lagos Region. A rural environment surrounded by volcanoes, lakes, and native forests.
THE REQUEST
The assignment was to design, develop and build a system of replicable squares. Each typology had to contain at least three components; soil movements, playgrounds, and landscaping.
THE EXISTING
The limited budget invited creativity. For this reason, one of the team’s first decisions was to work with existing materials/resources.
The large logs, used for most of the playsets, are remnants rescued from the site. Their quantity and dimensions were the starting point for the design.
At that time, the owners of the project were building the roads and the underground electricity and water lines for the condominium. We reused the soil material extracted from these works to mold a new topography, one based on the requirements of each site, in order to give a different “identity” to each plaza.
The intense yellow used in some playsets, or in sections of them, is a tribute to the memory of the place, either by the mosses that grow on the south side of the existing trees and constructions or by the intense wild flowering of meadows predominant in the spring.
From the above, some key concepts of the project equation emerge: Emulate the surrounding landscape of volcanoes and mountains, intend the most moving views, emphasize access and circulation, cause chromatic affinity with the context and finally, generate protection from the immediate scale.
THE PROJECT
Based on the materials and resources provided by the site and guided by the main slogan of replicability, we conceived a system composed of the following elements:
A.- Five typologies of earthworks:
Horseshoe, 2 hillocks, 3 hillocks, 4 hillocks, Plain.
B.- Five playsets:
Slide, Ropes, Swing, Seat, See-saw.
C.- Five native trees:
Nothofagus Dombeyi, Nothofagus Oblicua, Maytenus Boaria, Luma Apiculata and Embothrium Coccineum.
D.- Five native shrubs:
Cortaderia selloana, Fuchsia Magellanica, Tepualia Stipularis, Azara sp., Libertia chilensis.
The combination of these factors allowed us to diversify and therefore, generate an individual formal response adaptable to the requirements of each square. Prevailing the influence of the place over the work.
Our main objective lies in the rigorous integration between architecture and landscape, where the elements of nature and its specific geographical conditions, assume a decisive role in the formal result of each project.
We propose an Architecture from the Landscape
