Deserta

AA Santiago Visiting School 2011

DESERTA – AA/PUC Visiting School to the Atacama Desert

Catholic University School of Architecture / www.deserta.org

5 - 14 January 2011

In its second year, the AA/UC Visiting School will approach a harsh climatic and geographical condition, the Atacama Desert in northern Chile. Usually considered to be the driest place on earth, this desert has nonetheless seen the emergence and collapse of several mining towns, always constrained by scarce water and energy resources and extreme weather conditions. Hosting the workshop at one of these towns - Maria Elena – in addition to Chile’s capital, Santiago, the programme will address the struggle of cities striving to resist the power of the encroaching desert. Close to large reservoirs of lithium, salts and other mineral components, it is located in an area with one of the highest rates of direct solar radiation in the world, allowing for design and conceptual speculation about its possible urban and architectural future from the introduction of new demands brought forward by the upcoming industries of concentrated solar power (CSP) tourism and desert agriculture. Founded in 1926 by the Guggenheim family as a mining town, its plan resembles the ideal layouts of sixteenth and seventeenth century cities like Vincenzo Scamozzi’s Palmanova or Sebastian La Preste de Vauban’s Neuf-Brisach. Within this historical and physical context the workshop will combine design and theoretical enquiry in exploring the strictures of the arid condition from the design of images that will carry the mass of tradition and association and the energy of novelty and technology, advancing the transition from the ideal plan to the possible futures of the Atacama Desert.  

The workshop is organized in collaboration with the Atacama Desert Centre (CDA), and Desertec Sudamérica, and will be taught by tutors from the AA and the Catholic University: Marina Lathouri, Thomas Weaver and Christopher Pierce will join Rodrigo Perez de Arce, Arturo Lyon and Pedro Ignacio Alonso. The architecture photographer Tim Street-Porter will be a special guest. Evening lectures and site visits to Maria Elena, the ghost town of Pedro de Valdivia, the Loa Oasis and San Pedro de Atacama, will provide insights into the surrounding landscape of Atacama. The 10-day workshop is open to engaging students, recent graduates, young designers and architects as well as professionals from other related fields interested in exploring alternative forms of practice.