Parque Ecuador

This park is very close to the apartment, it is just a few blocks away. This park is more like the parks we have here in the states. It's kind of cool because it is actually a hill that the have conserved as a park. They left most of the hill with its native plants and have made a road to the top. Along the bottom of the park, they have put in a bunch of grass, paths, play equipment, and big trees. Some of these trees are ancient, they are incredible just to look at. There is this cypress tree in particular that I just love. I still haven't got a great picture of it but I will I think we need to go later in the evening. A new attraction that they have at this park is a community water park. Everyday that we have been there it been full of people. It seems like quite a fun idea though I wonder about how healthy it is but then I think the same of public pools.

The hill is quite large and fairly tall, we still haven't gone to the top but I have been told that it has a great view of the city. Like I said before, most of the hill is left just as a natural woodlands area, the part that is actually maintained is just the bottom of the hill. It makes for a very long and narrow park. I would say that it is about a one and half city blocks wide and about a mile to a mile and half long. We found out today that the park also hosts different fairs and that the biggest art fair had just started today. My wife loved looking at all the different handmade crafts from not just Chile but all different countries in south america. Luckily for me I didn't have much money on me but I am worried because she is already planning on going back there next week and with a lot more money. While she was there she took a bunch of pictures and I thought they made a good slide show with all the colors and types of things that they have here in Chile.

Sitting

In one of my books, I have been reading that they did a study on what makes an urban public places work and what doesn't. It was interesting in that they found that the number one variable was the amount and quality of sitting. After I read this I decided to go to the Plaza de Armas in Concepcion and test it out. I found a couple of interesting things in the plaza. The first one is that for the most part I think the Plaza fits with the research in the book.

Second I found that the people didn't have any problem sitting very close together. So that they take advantage of all of the seating space. You can be sitting and then right next you on the same bench, you can have someone making out and on the other side of you a whole family eating ice cream. They don't seem to have the same kind of issues of personal space like we do in the states.

The people used all of the sitting space that was available to them, there were people sitting in the grass, sitting on the benches and sitting on the ledge of the fountain. The only idea I had was that they could of made some of the planting areas raised beds so that people could sit on the edge of the planting beds.

It would be interesting to see the plaza in the winter because there are not any covers over the seating area so I don't know where you would sit and not get wet when it rains. You couldn't sit in the grass because it would be wet and none of the benches or the fountain are under the trees so as to give some protection from the rain. My guess is that the plaza gets a lot less use in the winter due to the lack of good sitting. Understanding sitting space is a important step in making a good public space.

Plaza de las Armas-A great example

The first Plaza that I have gone to study is the Plaza de las Armas in Concepcion. It is the central plaza of Concepcion. I will take advantage of this plaza as an example of what the basic elements of central plazas are in Latin American countries. First off, Plazas are one of the oldest parts of a town, they are put in place when the city was built or colonized and towns and cities would begin to spread out from the centralPlaza. In so saying, most often the plaza has a lot of historical significance. You will generally always find a catholic church or cathedral

at one side of the the plaza. you will also generally see government buildings, banks, commercial areas and sometimes prominent schools there also. In the plaza itself you will see things like statues, fountains and even stages for events. The statues usually have some historical significance like this one,

which is of a Mapucha Indian chief who helped the Chileans win there independents from the Spanish. They will also a lot of times have religious ties like this angle atop of the fountain.

The thing that amazes me and which has drawn me to study plazas is the amount of use by the people and the way it draws the community together. As you can see the whole plaza is filled and not just with one certain demographic but of all kinds. There are parents with their kids, old ladies, old men, young couples making out, beggars, Gypsies, street performers, groups of teenagers, business men, rich, poor, religious missionaries from different sects, street vendors and tourists. I was able to see and witness all this in just one visit to the plaza. It is a marvel that one space could be utilized by so many different kinds of people. This is what designers rarely ever achieve or even strive for.

As I was writing this blog I came up with the idea of this slide show to at least give the feeling of what I see going on in the plaza and the variety of people and their activities. Here is a quick video that I put together from what photos I have right now and then I will put a final one together. My wife says that this so far has been her favorite part of our trip. She calls it going to the plaza to people watch.

Intro-Purpose

So this is the start of my blog/journal of our trip to Chile. I am doing this in part for my class and in part so that those that are interested in what I am doing down here can follow along. I am a Landscape Management major at BYU which is a unique major, in that it mixes Landscape Architecture, Horticulture and Business Management into one degree. I am looking to graduate this coming fall and so I needed/wanted to do some research. I came up with the idea of studying Latin American plazas. I will give you a condensed version of my perposal so that you can get why I am doing this and that no, I haven't just come down here to vacation. Though after reading my proposal, I may not have persuaded you.

Urban design is the area of design that looks at all the spaces that come within urban space or highly dense areas. This is quite a broad definition but for me I am specifically interested in those urban spaces that are considered "green" such as parks, plazas, roof top gardens, or pretty much anywhere there is vegetation in the urban area. This focus of urban design has become a lot more important and relevant with in the last decade with something called the Urban Revival. This is what they call the phenomena, due to gas prices and other variables, many of people that lived in the suburbs are starting to move back to the city. With this influx of people to cities and urban centers, there has also come a desire to make these urban space better and more "green". A family that lived in a house with a yard in the suburbs now lives in an apartment downtown, yet they still want a place to walk the dog, lay under a tree or to let their kids play.

This all leads to what I am doing down here in Chile. A interesting solution to this issue of green spaces in urban environments has been in place for centuries in Latin America. Their use of Plazas encompasses much of what we are looking for and lacking in our urban environment. So I came down to Chile to see how they use their plazas, what materials they use, how they function, what interactions the Chileans have with the space, what advantages/disadvantages are there in its design and many more similar questions. The hope is that through an exhaustive study, I might better see how we can incorporate the design principles in the US, in not just large urban development projects but in many different things ranging from mixed use projects, to neighborhood developments.

So I hope to detail much of my findings and thoughts in this Blog. I think for most who, after reading just a little bit of the above paragraphs were completely bored I would suggest just looking at the pictures. I plan on using a lot of pictures because I think they better illustrate the point then me writing about my thoughts. I will also have a lot of pictures of plants and garden elements that I think are interesting or note worthy. I guess more then anything, this post is not only a introduction, but also a way to get you interested and excited about future posts or as the case maybe a disclaimer for those that had other expectations of this blog.