COASTAL RESEARCH LAB
Marine Investigation & Community Center in Chimbote, Peru.
ROLE: DESIGNER
FOR: UNIVERSIDAD DE LIMA, B.ARCH
STATUS: COMPLETED
The project proposed as equipment recognizes the need to implement a research program that contributes not only to the constant surveillance, study and understanding of the marine ecosystems with which the city of Chimbote lives, but also to the development of technologies that adapt to change, and face the effects of the prolonged environmental abandonment of the bay. Likewise, it seeks to complement the educational system by granting a space for research that did not exist until now.
Exterior Visual of Grid + Space.
In the case of Chimbote, the starting point is to define the problem and the deficit in the implementation of research institutes for the preservation of coastal ecosystems, with the location on the maritime border in an industrial zone in a situation of abandonment. The project aims to be a replicable equipment that can generate an edge recovery network.
Conceptualization and Elements.
Based on the proposed grid, the fills and voids suggested by the previously drawn axes are established. For the full ones, the grid is subdivided into containers, which will structure the project. For the voids, the spaces around which the flows are formed are obtained. The containers contain the voids, and these elements are articulated by spaces contained between them, where the program is developed at different levels, giving unity to the project without compromising the minimum footprint or the proposed permeability.
These users converge in more than one space within the proposed project, as this graph shows. The workers have the most streamlined sequence of spaces, mostly partitioned between free time and workplace spaces. They coincide in some of the former with visiting families, for example, the gallery.
At the same time, families visit exhibitions, which also serve as complementary educational spaces for students. Lastly, researchers aid in this didactic effort by sharing certain visitor-dedicated laboratories.
- Learning, Observation & Commerce
- Researching/ Investigation
- Exhibition
The spaces contained in these sectors present different activity levels throughout the day, which is mapped here to help portray and analyze the spatial needs for each user.
The circulation across the site is optimized not only by the location of the “container” spaces, but also of some pubic furniture and “elements,” which serve as spaces inserted in the physical grid. These act as magnets for each user path, and help them locate their pertinent spaces, and ensure their circulation with their most vital stops.