Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos

Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior Photography, CityscapeParque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior PhotographyParque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior PhotographyParque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior Photography, BeamParque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - More Images+ 10

Copiapó, Chile
  • Architects: CAW Arquitectos
  • Area Area of this architecture project Area:  215278 ft²
  • Year Completion year of this architecture project Year:  2021
  • Photographs
    Photographs:Rodrigo Werner
  • Manufacturers Brands with products used in this architecture project
    Manufacturers:  cove.tool, Arauco, Cintac, Schréder, Urban Play, UrbanPlay
  • Associated Architect: Juan Pablo Cacciuttolo
  • Collaborating Architect: Francoise De Saintpierre
  • Counterpart Minvu: María Paz Larenas
  • Counterpart Serviu: Wildo León Díaz, Carolina Egaña Vargas
  • Arquitecto Autor: Rodrigo Werner
  • Program: Urban equipment
  • City: Copiapó
  • Country: Chile
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Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior Photography
© Rodrigo Werner
Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Image 8 of 15
Plano de ubicación
Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior Photography, Garden
© Rodrigo Werner

From a landfill to Vergel in the desert. Parque Esmeralda is located in the piedmont of Copiapó city, Northern Chile. The Park is in one of the last peripheral social housing developments on the north side of this town, at the border with the Atacama Desert.

Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior Photography
© Rodrigo Werner
Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Image 9 of 15
Isométrica sector bajo

In its origins, the land where the project was built was part of a small stream, but for more than 40 years it was filled with garbage and rubble. In this context, residents of the Esmeralda population –made up of more than 300 vulnerable families– had a historical desire to transform and recover this landfill into a meeting space that would become the heart of the neighborhood. This was the center of the Esmeralda Project: to give its neighbors a green and habitable space that since its construction in the 80s did not have any facilities or public recreation areas.

Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior Photography, Beam
© Rodrigo Werner
Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Image 14 of 15
Isométrica área central

Implementing green in the desert and on slopes, in a periphery of extreme poverty. The origin of the project consisted in delving into the idea of an “urban garden”, a green place in the desert, which could mitigate and coexist in the extremely arid environment of the Atacama Region, globally known for being the driest desert in the world. But achieving a public space with high water scarcity and located in a vulnerable sector was a tremendous challenge. We interrogated ourselves: How can we generate the greatest amount of green perception with the least amount of green area? Thus, the spearhead of the design consisted in working on a strategy of green visual perspectives, which implied observing not only the park's land but also the surrounding passages where the neighbors pass daily. We also realized that numerous passages end in the parking area, which triggered a proposal to strategically locate groves at the visual intersection of the streets with the park. In this way, each neighbor would obtain a vegetated area as a visual finish for their passage, instead of the existing unhealthy pile of garbage.

Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior Photography
© Rodrigo Werner
Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Image 10 of 15
Planta general de arquitectura
Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Image 13 of 15
Planta nivel cubiertas - Dosel alto

Inside these groves, the project contemplates accessible circulations, small meeting places, and community gardens, which finally unite two neighborhoods that were divided for decades since they were separated by the landfill.

Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior Photography
© Rodrigo Werner
Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Image 12 of 15
Planta áreas verdes estrata baja
Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Image 11 of 15
Planta pavimentos

In this way, the park is composed of a delicate social and ecological fabric between zones of high vegetation cover, intermediate zones of lower vegetation, orchards, and more exposed programmatic zones (with pavements). With this strategy large heat islands are avoided, always trying to be "surrounded by the green".

Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos - Exterior Photography, Cityscape
© Rodrigo Werner

In the longitudinal direction and given the steep slope (42m of unevenness), the park is projected based on terraces with rocks from local stonemasons, which give rise to multiple viewpoints of the Copiapo Valley.

This is a process of a series of workshops with the neighbors during the design stage, and then the construction of green areas and stone walls.

Project gallery

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Project location

Address:Copiapó, Atacama, Chile

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Location to be used only as a reference. It could indicate city/country but not exact address.
About this office
Cite: "Parque Esmeralda: Community Garden Project / CAW Arquitectos" [Vergel comunitario, Parque Esmeralda / CAW Arquitectos] 21 Sep 2024. ArchDaily. Accessed . <https://www.archdaily.com/997557/parque-esmeralda-community-garden-project-caw-arquitectos> ISSN 0719-8884

© Rodrigo Werner

从垃圾填埋场到社区花园,埃斯梅拉达公园 / CAW Arquitectos

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