Project Entry 2017 for Latin America
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Public baths and sewage treatment plant, Cerro de Pasco, Peru
Between two rows of concrete cylinders prefabricated with pipeline dimensions, a double membrane of plastic strip curtains ensures the thermal insulation of the building. This porous envelope isolates a central space which can be accessed by all sides. The crossing of the lake is a first transition to this “other city”. The passage through the thickness of the envelope, where the showers take place in cabins, allows a second transition, inspired by the ancestral traditions of purification.
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Public baths and sewage treatment plant, Cerro de Pasco, Peru
The central space, which contains different types of baths, is shaped by the curves of the treatment tanks. These simple curves magnify the experience of the user. They give shape to a different place, where one is no longer employed or peasant but a simple citizen. In a city full of symbols and allegories, a symbolic reading of this architecture does not condition the users’ experience, but it imperceptibly asserts to the inhabitants their right to aspire to a better life.
Last updated: March 21, 2017 Cerro de Pasco, Peru
Architecture as an ethical position: a social response to a deeply symbolic context
Cerro de Pasco, mining town in the Andes founded in the 16th Century, has grown on a mineral deposit. Since the 1950s, an open pit mine is devouring the city from the inside. It has already destroyed a large part of the historical center, and will keep growing as long as Western society expands.
The combination of industry and public baths (which have always been symbols of a city within the city, in the Roman tradition as well as in the Inca tradition) makes sense. It’s an allegorical response to the deeply symbolic form of the city. Cerro de Pasco has always been closer to a factory than a city. People only live there to produce. The project questions this urban model. It offers an alternative to the productivist city of “living next to”: a city of “living together”.
Architecture as an ecosystem: a sustainable response to a deeply contaminated context
The lake where the project takes place is currently the wastewater receptacle of the city. The project, in addition to purifying water for the city, allows users to take a hot shower or hot bath. Water is heated with natural gas, thanks to an integrated methanisation system using wastes from the treatment, as well as agricultural wastes. Local farmers can exchange their wastes for natural fertilizers, produced by the methanisation process. During most of the year, the project can be reached by walking. But during the rainy periods, the water level increases, generating an informal (boat transportation) economy to access the building. Local peasant and informal economy are boosted, and the “lake to drink”, is once again a source of water for the city.
Architecture as a protection: an empathetic response to a deeply threatening context
The project offers the inhabitants a place to wash themselves, essential step towards a more dignified life. It gives back to the inhabitant their right to access water, to benefit from the natural resources of their country, which are monopolized by the mining company. It also allows them to escape their daily routine for a moment. At 4350m asl, in a city where life is rough, it allows a moment of respite. Crossing the lake and then the thickness of the building boundaries would lead into a unique space: a city within the city – a place where all the senses are stimulated and where social interactions can be reinvented. Standing against the mining company and its productivist vision of the city, the building embodies the collective in the territory.