TROPICAL STATION EXPLORES THE CONDITION OF “TROPICALITY” & HABITAT IN THE COAST OF PERU

Tropical Station is an experimental project based on explorations of the ecosystems of the north Pacific tropical sea of Peru, a place where both cold and hot ocean streams meet near the equatorial line. The concept of habitat is redefined by responding to the tropical weather and the dynamism of this fluctuating seasons, that alternates between intense rainfall and drastic droughts.

The station is a handmade structure that reformulates traditional building techniques using local materials such as bamboo, earth and vegetable fibers, ensuring minimum impact on the environment as well as low construction costs. Sustainability and autonomy integrated in the design -water recycling, solar panel energy systems, waste management- emerge in essential daily activities that direct our awareness to what inhabiting implies at the core. LOBITOS BEACH: FROM OIL ENCLAVE TO NATURE SANCTUARY Tropical Station aims to redefine the concept of habitat as a temporary place, a refuge for essential life activities and rituals coexisting with natural cycles and wildlife, akin to an observatory of biodiversity, and oceanic and astronomical movements. In contrast, the land on the site shows traces of extractive colonial practices: scattered old industrial oil pump machinery belonging to London founded in 1900 ‘Lobitos Oilfield Company’ that worked until the beginning of this century. Estudio RF’s project creates a new layer in this geology, the possibility of a temporary habitat inside a protected marine sanctuary: a place where plants, animals, local communities & visitors coexist.   LATIN AMERICAN ART AND TROPICALITY : A CONTRAST WITH THE DOMINANT RATIONAL EUROPEAN CULTURE Tropical Station makes reference to 20th century projects Maison Tropical by Jean Prouvé and Tropicalia by Helio Oiticica. Both reflect on tropical environments and habitats in developing countries, creating a dialogue between art and architecture. The project enlisted a workgroup composed of traditional peruvian craftsmen such as master of weaving David Goiochea, and master stonesman Roberto Roman.

Design allows us to explore the relationship between the contemporary habitat and natural environments. Estudio RF's projects are based on the observation of the territory in transformation and establish new relationships between the body, nature and the environment, as a collective fabric. By incorporating local materials, manual labor and rituals from design, we reincorporate the territory into our lives, integrating the body with materiality and natural cycles. Inhabiting creates the occasion for new and old rituals.

The remodeling of a duplex apartment in Lima allowed the studio to explore local materials such as Andean stone and jungle wood in the design of finishes and furnishings. The warm color palette is complemented by bronze accessories.

The new venue of chef Virgilio Martinez’s Central Restaurante develops a contemporary architecture based on the recovery of traditional techniques and materials belonging to the diverse ecosystems of Peru, by transforming an old house in the Barranco district, in the Peruvian coast, into a space where different times and materialities coexist.

The project also houses Kjolle, the new restaurant by chef Pia León, as well as Mayo bar and Mater Iniciativa, a center for the biological and cultural study of our biodiversity.

The new Central restaurant originates from a quest to understand the landscape we inhabit in order to relate to the diversity of our ecosystems and their interactions. Peru is a megadiverse country home to more than 70% of the planet’s biodiversity, from its cold seas and desert coastline to the Amazonian tropical rainforest or the Andes. Through an understanding of the particular physical and material conditions of this heterogeneous landscape, we can recover and recreate the biodiverse worldview of our territory. The architecture we conceive integrates these landscapes by employing their materials, thus recovering and developing local and sustainable construction systems that allow us to reestablish physical contact with the habitat. We seek to establish a direct link between the body that occupies the space and the different materials that make up the landscapes, as well as the worldviews that make up our collective habitat. We believe in a continuity between construction techniques developed by human beings and the natural diversity of each place. Our intention is to recover and recreate a material language of diversity that can be integrated into our future habitat. This way, by dissolving the barriers between past, present and future, natural and artificial, urban and rural, technologic and archaic, and industrial and artisanal, we incorporate feral materials to our design process, which reveal moments in the continuous transformation of the territory that has taken place across natural cycles for thousands of years. With this project, we want to transcend the generic language of present architecture by incorporating local materials into its design and recovering the artisanal techniques of Peru. Visitors to Central will find materials such as the earths of Lima, the woods of the Amazon and the stones of the Andes. They will also see techniques such as loom weaving, quincha, stone carving and artisanal works in copper and bronze.  

ARCHITECTURE, PRESERVATION AND SUSTAINABILITY

The project is located in Barranco, a district whose historical layers are still visible. Barranco was originally part of a pre-Columbian farming valley complete with irrigation channels. Later, during the colonization, manors were built and it became a summer spot. With the city’s modernization process, many of the district’s colonial houses were demolished and replaced with modern concrete buildings, while others were declared a cultural heritage. From the beginning, we meant to evidence this place’s transformation process, while differentiating its many interventions over time by contrasting the new, enlarged volumes with existing architectural elements that were recycled or preserved. We reinforced the existing concrete structures to support new weight, giving them a second life without generating waste. On the other hand, we decided to preserve all the vegetable species and material elements found in the area and incorporate them to the project as part of the space’s memory. In addition, we rescued more than twenty trees from neighboring grounds and transferred them into the new restaurant’s area. During the structural reinforcement process, which was done with carbon fiber, we opted to leave the traces of intervention in plain sight to evidence the passage of time in the walls, columns and beams. Through the architecture, the visitor can read into a geology of different material layers that tell what is preserved, what is remodeled and what is expanded. In addition to our aim of recreating our biodiversity’s collective consciousness, we chose the new materials and finishes under the principle of generating minimum impact on our natural habitat. We chose materials whose extraction, transformation and application can be done sustainably without unleashing harmful effects or toxic by-products on the environment. To warrant the project’s sustainability, we created independent sewage networks to treat waters separately and devised a treatment plant in order to purify greasy or grey waters and reuse them in our gardens. It was important that the restaurant addressed the climate requirements of the coastal desert ecosystem of Peru, which is characterized by its dryness and scarce rains.  

MANTAINING CONTINUITY BETWEEN ARCHITECTURE AND THE LANDSCAPE

The concept for the new Central restaurant begins with an experience of the Limean desert ecosystem and traditional Barranco gardening; the garden that welcomes the visitor is cultivated with pacae, avocado and other tree species common to the coastal desert. Our main goal was to preserve the maximum amount of existing green area while keeping constructed areas to a minimum, given that the architectural concept stems from the union between landscape and architecture: a place where the boundaries between landscape and interior spaces are dissolved. This way, we create a continuity between the materiality of the landscape and architectural materiality. The natural desert rocks and earth in the garden gradually become elements of the architecture, such as stairs, floors, wall claddings and lavatories. Visitors can witness how the natural habitat transforms into the urban space. Moreover, the inner gardens articulate the space, providing natural lighting and ventilation to the interiors. In designing the main hall of Central, we were respectful of the placement of existing trees across the terrain, and consequently the new metallic structure adapts itself to the vegetation. Its enclosure is a system of pivoting and sliding glass, wood and earth panels. These different configurations create a variable relationship between the interior space and the gardens and orchards, while enabling the facade to transform in accordance to the seasons. In addition, the earth panels, crafted with the traditional quincha construction system, establish a relationship with the consciousness of ancient pre-Hispanic and colonial buildings of the coastline, while acting as a thermal and acoustic element. The hall ceiling was designed to house a xerophile garden to act as a radiation-isolating element and a natural light filter. Finally, as part of the architectural recycling, we cast new concrete slabs featuring elements that serve as pots for trees and plants on the second level.   EXTRA-URBAN POST-INDUSTRIAL MATERIALITY It is necessary to find a balance between industrial production materials and artisanal materials that enrich and add warmth to the architectural experience. Hence, the majority of materials the studio employs in its finishes are of artisanal making. For the project, we monitor the materials from their origins in their natural state to their manual transformation. We assembled a team or artisans who enriched the techniques and processes with their specialized knowledge. In Peru, there is a fluid relationship between the materials of each landscape and the artisans’ knowledge. These insights are part of the immaterial heritage of our country, as they’re based on traditions that have developed for thousands of years. Below, we detail the origins of each material, the artisans who produced them, and the techniques that we deem more important to the project. 1. STONE – Artisan Roberto Román, Ayacucho. TRAVERTINE, JUNÍN – Wine cellar doors VOLCANIC ROCKS, AREQUIPA – Main hall floor and Kjolle patio ONYX, AYACUCHO – Kjolle bar ONYX, HUARAZ – Mayo bar GRANITE, QUIRIO AND HUAYCÁN, LIMA – Lavatorie 2. ANIMAL FIBERS – Artisan Elvia Paucar, Junín WOOL FABRICS, SAN PEDRO DE CAJAS, JUNÍN – Curtains of Central and loom at Kjolle 3. EARTHS. Adobe and quincha artisan Erick Malasquez CLAY SOILS, CHILCA, LIMA - Facade and pivoting panels 4. WOODS. Fine woodworker Luis Mucha IPE AND SHIHUAHACO WOOD, PUCALLPA – Pivoting panels    

Kjolle is the first restaurant by chef Pia León. It is part of Central Restaurante’s family of restaurants, directed by León and husband Virgilio Martínez, who together also run Mil Centro in Cuzco, as well as Mater Iniciativa and Mayo in Lima. It is located in the same building that houses Central Restaurante, in the traditional district of Barranco on the Limean coast. Like all the project’s spaces, Kjolle’s architectural concept emerges from the relationship between landscaping and architecture. Its identity, however, is far from being a mere extension of Central. Kjolle’s architecture stems from a search for simplicity and fluidity, as this is a restaurant that nourishes off Peruvian biodiversity without adhering to the order of its ecosystems. The use of soft colors and textures was essential to the project: while minerals are predominant in Central – volcanic rock for the floors, clay and Amazonian wood for its panels – warmth predominates in Kjolle – pine wood for the false ceiling, and the delicate cream tone of its Ayacuchan onyx bar. Natural elements and unique, artisanally crafted pieces bring warmth to the space, thus a textile piece was created in collaboration with artist Ana Barboza and artisan Elvia Paucar. Moreover, the restaurant is illuminated by natural light that is filtered through a patio coated in volcanic rock and two inner gardens.

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MIL Centro is a new gastronomic project by chef Virgilio Martínez, located on the edge of the Moray Archaeological Complex. The restaurant sits at 3680 m.a.s.l. on the Sacred Valley of the Incas, 23 miles from the city of Cuzco, close to the village communities of Misminay and Kaccllarakay. The Moray complex is believed to have served as an agricultural research center under the Incas. Its terrace system, shaped as concentric circular platforms, allowed them to experiment with ecosystems and microclimates at different heights. This yielded them a great variety of crops, not to mention a deeper understanding of the complex geography of the different characteristic altitudes of Peru.

 

A VISION OF CONTINUITY 

Visitors to MIL Centro will recognize the Andes landscape in it, and how it integrates with its geography and ecosystems through the materials and techniques employed in its construction: local earth, fibers and minerals, each with its particular color and texture. Through the diversity of local materials and techniques, a sense of time and space is recovered.

The new construction seeks to integrate into the archaeological complex of Moray through landscaping elements. Engaging with this ancient technology allows us to revalue the cultural landscape it represents, and experience the coexistence of different times. We believe it is paramount for architecture to tie into the local communities and bring continuity to the historical legacy of their traditions. This way, after remodeling the building, originally design by architects Óscar Borasino and Ruth Alvarado, the restaurant merges into Moray’s natural, cultural and social setting organically and respectfully.

 

PROGRAM: LABORATORY RESTAURANT

Besides its restaurant program, MIL Centro is home to Mater Iniciativa, a biological and cultural research center devoted to an interdisciplinary exploration of the Andes’ product biodiversity and ancient techniques. It also houses Flavour Lab Cacao, a laboratory that researches and works with cacao chuncho, a wild species of cacao that grows in Quillabamba, a city in the Cuzco region bordering the Amazon at 1050 m.a.s.l. Finally, the bar program is complemented by a microlaboratory dedicated to ferments, distillates and macerated liquors based on local species.

 

LANDSCAPING AND COMMUNITY AGRICULTURE

From its beginnings, MIL Centro sought direct contact between the public and the community agricultural processes and sceneries of Moray. The main idea behind the project is to preserve harmony between the botany in the area and integrate the agricultural and landscaping processes into the restaurant’s gastronomical experience.

The Moray Archaeological Complex is surrounded by orchards belonging to the Misminay and Kaccitarakay communities, where they cultivate over 50 native potato, fava bean, mashua, quinua and kañihua varieties. In addition, there are special areas for sun drying tubers and for artisanal earthen ovens called huatías. These two gastronomic activities are descended from the open air rituals of pre-Hispanic times.

Inside the restaurant, the spaces are organized around a central stone patio and an inner garden featuring native species, with the queñua tree as its main protagonist. The Andean queñua tree is currently endangered, and there is a national program for its recovery and preservation. Its capacity to regulate the weather, prevent soil erosion and feed water springs makes it essential to the valley’s ecosystem.

 

MATERIALITY AND NEW LOCAL TECHNIQUES

We decide to use materials employed by the inhabitants of this valley, as well as artisanal techniques whose practice isn’t commonplace like in the past: weaving with ichu fiber, stone carving and finishes in adobe and colored clays. The first step was to harken back to these construction techniques and get to know them in-depth. We sought to recover them in order to reinterpret and integrate them with contemporary technologies and processes, allowing to develop and reinvent them. We believe in a close relationship between the materials, climate, altitude, history and artisanal traditions of each place.

Ichu is a type of grass that grows from 3800 m.a.s.l. in the South American Andes. It was used by the Incas for various activities, such as roofing their buildings and weaving bridges. This technique endures in some locations across Perú: its vestiges include the hanging bridge of Queshuachaca, in Cuzco, and the church ceilings of the Incahuasi district in Lambayeque and the Marcapata district in Cuzco.

Reinterpreting this technique and choosing this plant species for the restaurant’s roofs was our way to salvage the collective consciousness of the past, transform it and project it upon the future. From the start, we were interested in having the nearby communities involved in the roofing process, just as different communities would periodically come together in the past to celebrate the Minka, the renovation ritual of weaving new roofs for their buildings.

Important material research was also done to choose the earth. For the outer facade, we experimented with a building system based on mixing the earth with resin derived from cacti. The resin waterproofs the earth and protects it from erosion due to rain waters. The treatment allowed the outer walls to blend in with the natural surroundings by showing the same color as the earth in the valley.

For the treatment of the inner walls, we collected different kinds of earth from the surrounding areas and applied them to the halls. The predominant variations on white and grey evidence the diversity of tones and types of soil that exist in a single place.

The entrance stairway to the restaurant was designed with blocks of stone worked by local artisans. The steps in the stairway gradually become small terraces where native plants are cultivated. This way, we create a small transition space whose lytic materiality and graduated shape connect the archaeological area and the new MIL Centro restaurant.

Finally, at MIL Centro, we seek to minimize the impact to protected areas, proving that the natural materials in the area are more sustainable that the materials that dominate contemporary Cuzco structures. On the other hand, we believe that the importance of preserving our country’s traditional techniques lies in its capability to encompass specialized knowledge and practices that were developed over thousands of years and passed down for generations.

 

FROM HERE ON // ARCHITECTURE NOW

MIL Centro aims to recover and transform the ancient techniques and use of natural elements that materialized the lives of the original peoples of Peru: the construction of its religious centers, their homes, their tools and their different kinds of technology and rituals. We want to restore value to an architectural vision based on its direct relation to the natural, material and cultural setting it means to intervene.

 

Mater Iniciativa: http://materiniciativa.com/