Courtesy of Map 13

Map 13 shared with us their project, Infrastructural Archeaology. Landfills are areas of great potential which are but a mere evidence of the uncontrolled cosumerism of this extreme society. They understand that waste should be buried and isolated, and not be forgotten and abandoned. It is thus an open project, where the definite plan of its pieces is not the main interest, but rather the definition of its systems and their development in time. More images and architects’ description after the break.

Courtesy of Map 13

1 – Waste. Strategies to boost the hidden man-made landscape on the territory

As we worked on the analysis of the site, we observed that the waste accumulated, 8 million cubic meters, had completely erased the original topography of the site. If such volume were to be stacked it would reach the height of the Eiffel Tower! It was extremely important for us, to physically show these hidden large quantities of accumulated waste. For this we used an abstract mesh of poles. The height of each pole would be determined by the amount of waste that lays underneath them. Therefore obtaining a topography that creates a new identity in the territory, which can be read as the inverse of the volume of garbage buried below.

floor plan

2 – Perimeter Belt. Linear Boundary strategy: construction of a belt linking different levels and activities in the “safe areas” of the artificial topography

To complete all the elements of the structural base lines, we create a perimeter belt, a path that zigzags between the park and the forest, sewing the proposal. It works as a promenade, the place of all places, which connects the different activities and program proposed, allowing to visit the park understanding its spatial condition. reading the territory as a continuous addition of its historical traces.

section

3 – Buried Infrastructures. Archaeological transformation of the former structures in the new infrastructures for the growth of the territory

This “erased” space is a living organism in the process of decomposition, which needs a number of infrastructures in order to avoid its collapse, such as gas, electricity, water canalization, etc. This fascinating buried network goes by unnoticed by the eyes of bystanders. Not loosing these traces, and revealing its footprint in the surface, is fundamental in a proposal which seeks to reveal the problem of garbage and its correlated mass consumption.

Tracing these infrastructures into the surface allows us to create new lines in the landscape, which added to the mesh of poles, together, form a structural base which serves as the means of support for th e development of the park throughout time.

waste diagram

4 – Open Spaces. Articulated strategy of the use and activities in open spaces with higher structural stability

The “Safe Areas” will be located in the places we are able to process without damaging the waste cells, these spaces are ideal for recreational uses and open air facilities which can be complemented with small scale construction for complementary services. Following this system new areas could be developed, such as sports facilities, parking, drive-in cinema, vegetable garden to rent, viewing points, camping, open air atage, and more services.

perimeter belt diagram

5 – Temporary Schedule. Temporary land colonization strategies to its use and occupation. How to deal with a big scale project? What tools could we use for landscape design?

We understand that a project of this size and characteristics can´t give response to a closed design in which everything is pre-established from the very beginning. On the contrary, we believe in it as a living organism. Nonetheless, base lines should be traced. A grid which articulates the territory but gives way to the uncontrolled and unfixed systems for the development of the park. Involuntary acts such as the pollination, the wear of the human use, the rains, the winds, which will characterize and give form to the place.

buried infrastructures diagram

Floor plan

As we can see, the design of the park responds to the buried infrastructures, some of these landscape lines eventually become walking paths, but other just remain visible as traces in the territory, which can be materialized as lines of light, vegetation axis, a series of rocks. The poles which generate the new topography are planted on top of the gas shafts and serve as information poles, light poles, small wind turbines, all of them connected by the perimeter platform belt which plays with the levels and gives access to the different activities.

open spaces diagram

Systems which generate a mesh which reveals the functions and history of the place and that have the clear intention of establishing an interaction between the visitor and the park. A cultural landscape as a sum of the layers which are built up in time and that allow the organization of this space, crucial for debate in the dawn of this new era.

Architects: Map 13
Location: Oslo, Norway
Team: Andrés Velarde Sanz, Ramón Álvarez Roa, Jimena Campillo González, Marta Domènech Rodríguez, Juan Enríquez Lage, Carlota Estaún Martínez, David López López, Cristina Magro Baroni, María Palencia Serrano, Mariana Palumbo Fernández, Gonzalo Pardo Roquero, Antonio Rodríguez Cámara, Pablo Sigüenza Gómez
Award: Honorable Mention at 2011
Year: 2011