Archeological Interpretation Center in Miculla

Jorge Basadre Grohmann National University

Project idea

The project will be part of the tourist circuit of the archaeological complex of Miculla, located at the beginning of the same, being configured as a lookout point and interpretive center of knowledge, functioning as a landmark in the archaeological complex, which will be visible to visitors walking in between of the cultural archaeological landscape of the pampas of Miculla. As part of this system the project will be the point of recovery of the flow of tourists and the enhancement of the aforementioned complex, this being the viewpoint that observes from the height the extension of the archaeological landscape of Miculla, which will be configured as the main interpretive object of the project.

The proposal starts from the need to create a space where the research and dissemination of the great number of archaeological finds found in the pampas of San Francisco de Miculla are carried out in an optimal way.

Project description

Because it is a proposal located outside the urban limits, it manages to free itself in a certain way from the constraints that the city imposes, reason why the project tries to establish a strong bond with its natural surroundings, being coherent with the own language of the desert.

The project is considered as an archaeological vestibule, a citadel to be discovered and traveled, composed of a set of volumes that are integrated into the natural terrain. You will have to articulate tourist and recreational activities with historical cultural.

Technical information

The interpretation center is developed at a level whose inclinations of reinforced concrete help to emphasize the integration of the environment. The predominant construction system is reinforced concrete; and to a lesser extent straw coverings in public spaces.

• Structuring: The project is structured based on a horizontal axis, two diagonal axes and a central element that has higher hierarchy through which accesses, internal circulations, external circulations, and blocks of built areas are organized.

• Zoning: Making a total of 6 zones that are grouped within the architectural proposal: zone of social interaction, zone of interpretation, zone of administration, zone of investigation, zone of lodging and zone of general services.

• Circulations: Pedestrian circulation: Of two types: Public and Service. Composed of the horizontal axis and the diagonal axes, it is the one that connects all the activities of the project through ramps and stairs that make that it adapts to the morphology of the land.
Vehicle circulation: Of two types: public and service, which are nuclearized and have their parking lots also nuclear side of the central element (access point).

• Access: There are two types of access: the main and the service (which also serves researchers). The first one is given through the diagonal axes in the form of ramps and stairs that adapt to the natural shape of the terrain and in this way articulate the project. As for the second it is given through the service parking lot and has a lower hierarchy than the first one.

• Landscaping treatment: consists of integrating the built areas to the archaeological environment (slope, land and rocks) creating a terraced system in which different types of spaces are developed (open, semi-open and closed spaces), trying not to damage the archaeological environment through the use of local materials and colors in the facades and exteriors that adapt to the desert environment.

• Accessibility and restriction: Of three types: public, semi-public and restricted; the public accessibility includes open spaces such as the access plaza, multipurpose esplanades, and temporary exhibition areas, where the public can interact and move freely. The semi-public accessibility corresponds to those where an entrance control is carried out through a box office, but nevertheless it can enter all type of public; and finally the areas of restricted accessibility where only service personnel or researchers have access.