Nature as artifact

In dealing with a major river in Southern Brazil and its influence on one of its largest metropolises, the proposal responds to the floodplains’ singular condition as hybrid landscape – in between natural territory and built artifact – by proposing new artifacts that negotiate between the territorial scale, human appropriation and infrastructure.

By selecting one fragment within the larger territorial scale, the proposal sets out to explore in a closer scale potential strategies to approach the region as a whole. The intervention area – a former sand mining spot – contains the key elements of this hybrid landscape. It is an independent territorial fragment with clear boundaries, set apart from the surrounding urban fabric; it contains several hydric infrastructure buildings; and has not been modified since it has been abandoned, composing a hybrid and uncharted open area in the midst of the metropolis. The spatial fabric of this area – a geometry resulting from the superimposition of river channelization, mining operations and infrastructural appropriation to particular geological and vegetation conditions – was mapped in order to establish site-specific conditions and features. From this interpretation of the landscape as an artifact in constant construction, the process consisted in proposing new artifacts as a framework for intervention in the area. At an early moment, these were understood as spatial configurations that deal with three of the layers present in the intervention area – its limits, the spatial fabric an infrastructural objects. The artifacts are proposed as an open catalog of programmatic supports for further appropriation, distributed alongside a masterplan for the intervention area. Furthermore, two specific areas from the masterplan were developed in detail to explore the programmatic possibilities that could unfold from the use of this catalog, coupling infrastructural uses with cultivation, leisure and nature interpretation. The proposal in the form of an open exercise leads to a greater understanding of this large territory and contributes to a new approach on how to face its contradictions.