Case Study Montevideo 3

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Name	PROYECTO DE DETALLE BAHÍA - CAPURRO - BELLA VISTA
Location	Montevideo
Country	Uruguay
Office	IMM_intendencia Municipal de Montevideo-departamento de planificación/coordinator: Arq. Ulises Torrado
Client	IMM_Intendencia de Montevideo
Completion	not completed/in process
<googlemap version="0.9" lat="-34.86" lon="-56.20" type="satellite" zoom="11" width="300" height="250"> </googlemap>

Core Question 1: In how far does this project reveal your concept of future landscapes?

This project, with all it´s faults , reveals our concept of future landscape in the meaning that it attempts to articulate diverse interests, sometimes conflicting (economic interests and socio-cultural) and different actors (public and private) in order to achieve the common good: that is negotiate for (re)build a public place and an emblematic landscape: Montevideo´s bay, part of our collective heritage, today degraded and submitted to diverse pressures. What is valued as interesting of this project is not it´s formalization or design (which is preliminary and very general), but what underlies, which is it´s intention of solving contradictions, the channelling of the multiple and opposite interests in a balanced way and also the challenges that faces: the diversity of scales that are at stake, the pollution that should be reverted and the lack of biodiversity. The landscape of future, in an increasing complexity context, should be constructed on the base of a negotiation with nature (human and not human nature) and from a deep knowledge of our environment with the aim to reach a balanced and sustainable development. That is, landscape should be conceived, even in the smallest actions, as the legacy of our time for the future generations.

Landscape and/or urban context

Biogeography, cultural features, overall character, history and dynamics

The Montevideo´s bay, the hill and the peninsula that enclose it, are geographical particularities that are closely bound to the origin and development of the city. Montevideo was founded in 1720 for strategic and military reasons, in the context of territorial disputes between the Portuguese and Spanish Empire. The bay and the peninsula offered perfect natural conditions to establish a port and a defensive device in the entry of the Rio de la Plata river. Montevideo owes its name to the cartographic record of the hill that is next the bay. In these records, this hill was appearing as MONTE VI D/E-O (i.e. the sixth Mount -or hill-, in East – West direction). This hill is right in front of the enclave of the considered project. The port has been from its foundation and continues still being, a key factor in the development of the city. There, historically, have arrived and have departed, merchant ships, military ships, fishing boats, ships with immigrants, with people brought as slaves from Africa during the XVIII century and with travellers. The port of Montevideo is nowadays in a process of expansion. The city, initially fortified, has developed from the peninsula eastward and North on the bay. This happened in successive extensions upon a softly wavy topography, respecting the old colonial roads and by using a reticle as organization device. The reticle (grid), of Greek / Roman inspiration, was widely used by the Spanish empire in the foundation of American cities. The bay has been affected in his edges by the port and industrial activity. There exist nowadays many facilities of significative size that have been abandoned and are obsolet. It still remains on its edge an oil refinery, that belongs and supplies fuels to the ANCAP company. Several state companies (ANCAP, ANTEL, UTE, ANP) have infrastructure or offices there. Two streams (Miguelete and Pantanoso) end in the bay. These streams that cross a large part of the city, have been a pollution source with domestic and industrial residues during the second half of the XX century. The bay presents nowadays significant levels of pollution, that are expected to be reverted in the short term, by the completion of the municipal sanitation plan IV.

Nevertheless this, some species adapted to environmental stress, still persist. This includes exotic resistant species, that were brought with the ballast´s water of foreign ships anchored in the port. The Capurro's zone, in the North-East sector of the bay, near the stream Miguelete, was the place in colony times (XVIII th century) a quarantine place for the people that were brought as slaves from Africa. Later (in XIX century) it was a place of water extraction and a sand source for the ballast of oversea ships. At the beginning of the XXth century (1910) the Capurro park was built as a recreative space with direct access to the bay. This constituted a place of reference to the neighborhood and the the city. At the end of the decade of 1980, due to the construction of the route, the park lost his connection with the bay and devaluated itself.

Cultural/social/political context

Brief explanation of culture, political economy, legal framework

Montevideo (1.500.000 inhabitants) is the capital of Uruguay (3.500.000 inhabitants) and is located in south of South America. This country borders Northern and East with Brazil, West with Argentina and South with the Atlantic Ocean. Culturally, Uruguay is the result of his moderate climate, of his peripherial condition, of his small scale and of the mixture of diverse migratory inflows, principally coming from Spain and Italy and in minor measure from the assimilation of the african population brought as slave during the XVIII century. In the first half of the XIXth century, the native population of these lands was totally exterminated and / or assimilated by the dominant european culture in the process of constitution of the "modern State". During the second half of the XIX century and the first half of the XX century the french model was adopted as reference to institutional and educational level. Uruguay has a long tradition of democratically elected governments and stable institutions. This tradition was interrupted in two occasions by police and military governments between 1933 and 1938 and more recently between 1973 and 1985. The economy of the country is based on the export of raw materials, agroindustrial products, food products and services in general. The tourism is increasingly relevant in it´s economy. Nowadays some of the principal sociocultural challenges that Uruguay faces, are the population aging, the need of improvement of labor opportunities and the levels of income of a major part of the population (the poverty reaches 23 % in the whole country), the improvement of education levels in the context of a highly competitive and technology dependent world, the defense of the natural resources of the country opposite to the investor´s increasing pressures in all areas, the improvement of the environmental monitoring systems, and diversification of the energetic matrix, nowadays dependent for the most part on oil and hydroelectric power. Uruguay is an independent republic since 1825. It is organized on the national level in three autonomous powers: legislature, executive and judiciary. A territorial decentralization of the power exists also, in turn in local governments that possess a legislative power (Junta Departamental) and an executive power (Intendencia). In local areas (departments) both, the laws and national procedure and the local procedure govern. The before mentioned, are subordinate to the laws, decrees and regulations of national scope. In Montevideo the government of the city (Intendencia de Montevideo, IMM and Junta Departmental) elaborates and approve the plans for the city.

The considered project is a Detailed Project elaborated by the IMM and approved by the Junta Departamental (parliament of Montevideo), framed inside the special plan Bahía-Capurro-Bella Vista-La Teja. The general frame in turn is given by the Plan Montevideo elaborated by the IMM in consultancy with the state University (UDELAR). The administration of the port activity is a competition of the national government across the ANP (Administración Nacional de Puertos).

Spatial analysis of area/project/plan

• What are the main structural features?
• How has it been shaped? Were there any critical decisions?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Analysis of program/function

• What are the main functional characteristics?
• How have they been expressed or incorporated?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Analysis of design/planning process

• How was the area/project/plan formulated and implemented?
• Were there any important consultations/collaborations?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

Analysis of use/users

• How is the area/project/plan used and by whom?
• Is the use changing? Are there any issues?

Illustration: Map/diagram/sketches photos and background notes

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References

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