Conceived as hydro-ecological infrastructure for urban resilience, the park is designed to reclaim the riparian landscape of the Cautín River, promoting a significant impact in hydraulic, ecosystemic and socioeconomic terms at the communal and regional levels, contributing to the multicultural integration between Mapuche traditions and contemporary Chilean society.
Its spatial structure is defined by a large central lawn – containing wetlands, floodplains, grasslands and woodlands – and a programmatic ring around its perimeter, with a series of public accesses, thematic squares, multifunctional services and recreational areas. All these programs are connected with a pathway system, that also allow the compartmentation of the hydro-ecological dynamics.
A sequence of floodable meadows, canals, ponds, and wetlands retain and infiltrate urban runoff, contemplating a total retention volume of 78,000 m3, corresponding to a 100-years return period (T100). Proposed as nature-based solution to reduce the risk of flooding, this system is made up of earthworks that accentuate existing depressions. Its landscape design integrated gradients of riparian vegetation that favor habitat conditions for animals, birds, amphibians, and beneficial insects, providing biodiversity and important ecosystem services.
On the other hand, as a multicultural public space, the park has been designed to promote social integration in a regional context characterized by historical ethnic conflicts with the Mapuche communities and human rights violations during the military dictatorship. To this purpose, the program includes ceremonial and commemorative sites to promote the Mapuche traditions and also to make visible the collective memory of the victims who lost their lives in the 1970’s.