Huilo-Huilo Viewing Platform

Huilo-Huilo Viewing Platform, Huilo-Huilo Nature Reserve, Chile, 2008

The Huilo-Huilo Viewing Platform is a multi-disciplinary research project built in collaboration with the Universidad Mayor in Temuco, Chile. The viewing platform is located at the Huilo-Huilo Nature Reserve near Neltume in southern Chile. Oriented to view the adjacent Mocho-Choshuenco volcano, the viewing platform will be connected to an elevated boardwalk that is to run through the nature reserve.

The project is designed as a 3-dimensional curved truss with interlocking vertical members and cantilevers for the ascending viewing platform. The placement of the cantilevered beams for the viewing platform is coordinated with the diagonals of the curved truss and vertical ‘skin’ members. The ‘skin’ on both sides of the structure is designed to transfer tension and compression from the cantilevered beams into the curved truss. Forces in the curved truss are then transferred into three small concrete foundation walls placed in radial configuration. All components of the project are fabricated on a 5-axis CNC beam processor available both in Canada and in Chile.

Located on a sloped site in the Huilo-Huilo Nature Reserve, the viewing platform leads the viewer from an elevated walkway that is to be connected on the low side of the structure towards the view of the adjacent Mocho-Choshuenco volcano. The perforated ‘skin’ protects visitors against the northern sun. From the north, the project presents itself as a curved wall with a descending fold created by the interlocking members. Depending on the position of the sun during the day, the project reads as an opaque wall or reveals the layers of the structure.

As a result of multi-disciplinary collaboration in Canada and Chile, the Huilo-Huilo Viewing Platform project serves as an example of regionally specific architecture that is shaped by local cultures and conditions and globally available fabrication technology and expertise.

Sustainable regional building cultures today are a product of local and global influences. If place is a statement about attitude to geography, history and resources, then the particular regional characteristics of a built environment are as much a reflection of local environmental conditions as a reflection of cultural context. The use of locally available technology is central to regionally specific building, material applications, and building methods. Associating technology with notions of region and place constitutes a shift away from attitudes towards technology that considered modern technological interventions detrimental to the preservation of local characteristics and identity. Available due to developments specific to regional economies and building traditions, digital design and fabrication technologies can be understood as responses to regional conditions. The design, fabrication, and assembly process of the Huilo-Huilo Viewing Platform is a result of the negotiation of globally available technologies and local economic and environmental circumstances. The multiple aspects considered in the project are reflected in the diverse team of designers, consultants, fabricators, and suppliers that helped shape the project. The project collaboration includes university researchers and students, structural engineers, fabricators and suppliers in both Canada and Chile. Expertise, available technology and materials in both Canada and Chile, and climate in Chile affect the design, fabrication and assembly of the project.