Parque Industrial y Cultural Barquisimeto - Venezuela 2015

Project Details

Barquisimeto Industrial and Cultural park – Venezuela 2015

DESCRIPTION

Winning project at the XX Quito International Architecture Biennial

Socio-productive cultural development units promoted by the state government through collective participation protocols, built through local knowledge and in collaboration with community workers.

he project addresses civil infrastructure and connectivity patterns within a territory shaped by the encounter between a modern mass-housing plan and informal urban growth. The proposal is situated within a crisis between the formal urban grid and a fragmented network that has produced impenetrable barriers and both physical and psychological boundaries between residents. The social rejection of interstitial spaces has allowed these transitional areas to become territories associated with crime and insecurity. The intervention seeks to produce and consolidate new forms of civic life while activating systems of micro-economy within this urban condition. It introduces grounds, connective surfaces, and programmatic units into these undefined territories, linking them with local production and a broader mapping of community skills and talents.

Through the development of civil infrastructure and environmental recreational spaces, the project has brought together sports, cultural, and community-support groups within a legally structured model, while experimenting with new forms of micro-economy based on a shared landscape. Participation protocols and local cooperation become part of the production of place and generate new cultural forms of exchange across the urban network. The spaces between the two urban models operate as forms of urban stitching. They are conceived as support infrastructures for training and socio-productive units capable of generating significant benefits in terms of local economic activity.

The main slope of the site presented a major challenge. Because of insufficient drainage at the upper edge, flooding affected both the park and adjacent houses, exposing the roots of existing vegetation. The slope was stabilized through precise excavation operations, the insertion of donated prefabricated units, and the construction of retaining walls. These units were arranged as socio-productive elements. Their main façades were removed to improve accessibility and to allow the units themselves to be used as formwork for the retaining walls. The transformation of the landscape and the construction of new geographies were further developed through the compaction of excavated soil, which was reused to create a second group of socio-productive units. These structures shape new slopes and stepped settings for the park’s cultural and productive activities. The encounter between these systems creates a new recreational setting: an open-air theater that reveals the mechanisms of performance and provides a platform for the cultural expression and vitality of the place. Taking advantage of the topography, a process of spatial layering was developed through the creation of passages and pedestrian connections aligned with the surrounding urban fabric. These routes activate the territory and improve continuity across the site. By combining territorial re-engineering with a cultural park containing at least six different programs, and by strategically positioning a series of containers along the perimeter to help retain the soil, the project is able to preserve a large open public space. The containers accommodate the productive units that support the park’s various programs: a cultural restaurant and bar, an information center, a furniture-making workshop, equipment for assembling stages, and a textile workshop for the local production of fabrics and garments. Together, these facilities support the progressive development of the community.

DETAILS

Use

Environmental Recreational Spaces

Type

Infrastructure

Use

Eco-Industrial Park

Type

Pavilion

Year

2015-2018

Location

Barquisimeto – Venezuela

Meters above the sea level

640

Average annual temperature

23 °C

Client

Presidential Commission for Peace and Life + Espacios de Paz, 2015

Design

Yemail Architecture + Lab.Pro.Fab + Insitu

Construction

Rafael Suarez, Cesar Figueroa, Robert Montilla.

Project team

Yemail Architecture (Antonio Yemail + Felipe Cuartas)
Lab.Pro.Fab (Alejandro Haiek)
Insitu (Rafael Machado + Fabio Andrés López)

Lead Architects

Alejandro Haiek + Rafael Machado + Fabio Lopez + Antonio Yemail

Coordination Of The Project And Work

Irina Urriola and Genesis Orozco

Computer Research Lab Pro Fab

Henrique Berni, Alexandra Montes and Daniela Rodriguez

Technical Management 2016

Anabell Mendez

Construction Coordination 2015

Rafael Suarez, Cesar Figueroa, Robert Montilla

Community

Project developed in collaboration with the Los Cerrajones community

Technical team

Felipe Cuartas + Enrique Henríquez + Luis Mutti + Genesis Orozco + Tharamaroa Troconis + Irina Urriola.

Technical direction

Anabell Mendez

Institutions

Construpatria + Fundación MUSARQ + Gran Misión Saber y Trabajo + Frente Francisco de Miranda + Movimiento por la Paz y la Vida + Espacios de Paz 2015

Photo Credits

Irina Urriola
Lab.Pro.Fab

Categories: City