Resilient hotel + craft equipment

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Ecuador, Facultad de Arquitectura, Diseno y Artes

Project idea

On April 16, 2016, an earthquake of magnitude 7.8 affected the coastal provinces of Ecuador, leaving several families homeless and without work. The project seeks to reactivate the tourism sector based on a comprehensive approach in which different facilities were established within the vulnerable territory, taking into account the resilience capacity.

Project description

Within the approach in the territory, the area of ​​intervention in the hotel barrier was defined, which is the main filter from the sea to the territory, the proposed equipment has an artisanal character, which is complementary to the tourist character of the hotel.
A permeability in the intervention is proposed, to relate the preexisting neighboring houses with the project in a comprehensive way, making use of water, vegetation and treatment of public space.
The equipment has a direct relationship with the houses since heights are taken into account to have a better human scale. The hotel is eight stories high, and the ground floor is flexible, with walk-in closets, showers, and space to accommodate more people on the ground floor, making it resilient in the event of another catastrophe.
Rapid evacuation is a key factor in the design, which is why an emergency staircase from the hotel to the evacuation boulevard proposed in the mass plan is proposed, so that the project is feasible in emergencies.

Technical information

Because the soil on the site is very bad, it was decided to place reinforced concrete piles that are anchored 8 meters until finding firm ground and reinforced concrete plinths are anchored to the foundation to ensure that the project has a better earthquake resistance. The skeleton of the project is made of reinforced concrete due to its lightness, easy assembly and allows the design of large spaces.