Revitalizing the Funiculars as a Catalyst for Urban Change; Valparaiso, Chile

The project in Valparaiso was a joint effort between EcoPolis International Master and the undergraduate architecture students of the Department of Architecture at the Federico Santa Maria Technical University of Valparaiso. The architecture students, as part of a studio taught by Professor Roberto Barría Kirkwood, were studying oppotunities to use the city’s famous funiculars (inclined railways) as design opportunities for the city’s activities related to Chile’s 2010 Bicentennial Celebration. The Eco-Polis students’ work with the undergraduate architecture students produced two particular benefits.  First, as residents of the area who had studied the region from an environmental design point of view, the architecture students were able to give the EcoPolis students a concentrated overview of the urban environment and socio-political realities of the City.  Secondly, the project gave the EcoPolis students an opportunity to crystallize the lessons they had learned during the previous phases of the program by acting as consultants to the undergraduate architecture students, explaining and advocating the multidisciplinary policy and planning approach that, for the masters students, had become second nature.

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