"The perfect fire" of Valparaíso

emergency of the landscape heritage and its reconstruction.

Abstract

The “perfect fire” –BBC News– occurred in 2014 in Valparaíso, Chile; UNESCO World Heritage Site. As consequences: deceased, homeless and devastated landscape. After the emergency began the reconstruction. The new houses built, with their materials, incorporate new perceptions, evidencing a high degree of dissociation between the proposed reconstruction plan and the recovery of the Perceptual Language of the local Landscape that existed before the fire. This would imply a new impact for the inhabitants; lose the right to the neighborhood, landscape, identity and heritage. It is proposed to overcome the above through a participatory methodology: Perceptual Language of the Landscape, which consists of transforming the perception that people collectively have about their landscapes, into as objective data as possible. The result: reveal “perceptual keys” of local identity, useful for design and management, and that recognizes and values a participatory diagnosis, to later establish guidelines and design criteria for new interventions in a heritage neighborhood.