Chile singular. Apuntes de viaje

S A N P E D R O D E A T A C A M A The sketches in this travel notebook were made on various trips to San Pedro and the Atacama salt flat. The first trip was more than 20 years ago with my students from the Faculty of Architecture at the Universidad del Desarrollo, where we traveled to the desert to draw, to understand, and to design in the vastness of this territory. Many other trips followed while our project for the radio telescope at the ALMA Observatory was being constructed. And finally , the most significant journeys were made for the study of the Archaeological Museum of Atacama project, which began construction in 2015 but has remained abandoned to this day. San Pedro is an oasis amidst the immensity of the desert. The Lascar and Licancabur volcanoes watch over its existence, and the watercourses bring life and complete the references for settling in the place and its context. Water, shade, and walls come together to shape spaces and define the urban order, the spirit, and form of the architecture. Water allows life and creates paths. Shade shelters the habitat and sketches in light. Walls provide form and mass to protect the intimacy of life. Why come to draw in the northern desert where it seems there is nothing but desert? Because drawing is about discovering and observing. Observing is knowing how to look, understand, and see more. Drawing allows analysis and understanding, which leads to learning because learning helps us remember. Drawing helps us remember, and then remembering allows us to design and create spaces and forms upon a poetic foundation. Constructing with a foundation based on discoveries, and upon that foundation, building a project that gives rise to the work of architecture. Everything is founded on a history , a tradition, an idea. Nothing comes from nothing. In art, as in architecture, there are no inventions but discoveries. SAN PEDRO , 1 9 98 - 20 1 8 . 34