Piedras Bayas Beachcamp, Atacama Desert Chile Building Project, Design, Architecture Images

Piedras Bayas Beachcamp in Atacama Desert

Sustainable Tourism in Chile, South America building design by Camilo Moraes Arquitectos

3 Dec 2018

Piedras Bayas Beachcamp, Atacama Desert

Sustainable tourist station

Architects: Camilo Moraes Arquitectos

Location: Atacama Desert, Northern Chile

Photos by Alejandro Galvez & Cristina Ananias

Lodge Piedras Bayas Base Camp, Atacama Desert

Piedras Bayas Beachcamp is an itinerating and sustainable tourism station located in the virgin landscape of the coastal zone of Atacama desert, in northern Chile.

It’s strategy of light structures, integration of local materials, non-contaminant sanitary systems and green- powered facilities is an architectural example of low impact construction for non-intervened natural landscapes.

Context

The Atacama Desert is located within the “South America arid diagonal”. It is a dry zone and almost never rains. The coast zone has a temperate climate all year. It has a high geological & archaeological content. A place with immense natural landscapes that are still limitedly affected by human action and has no urban planning.

Site plan

In order to maintain privacy, each dome room were separated 50 meters away from each other. This also allows more visible presence of the landscape. Instead of building large volumes, the decision was to build several small buildings, connected through exterior paths.

Project

The strategy was to have a wood structure as the skeleton with skin made out of local materials. The structural basis was made from wooden pillars simply buried one meter in the sand compactd with salt water. For the foundations we did not use any cement at all.

Materials

The main local materials used for this project were “Brea” and “Totora”. It inspired by a small village located 40 minutes from the site. A type of local bush that grows in the zone´s wetlands that was used for decades and it is possible to see how this material is kept in good condition over the years. The Brea works as a perfect material to isolate the building of the sun. The material Brea is used outside as a cladding in a frame type structure.