Rails of Opportunities
Strategies for the uncertainty of the Lima Central Railroad
March 2016 - April 2017
Lima, Perú.
Personal bachelor thesis project Selected and published by Archiprix 2019 Graded with Highest Honors
Tutors: J. Crousse, R. Poggione, F. Quiñones
First Sketches.
From the beggining the project aimed to convert the abandoned railroad in a vibran public space.
The central railroad is one of the few east-west connections in a fragmented city like Lima. However, today it is a valueless space that saves itself from being occupied thanks to the daily passing of a freight train. The project proposes the railroad as an axis of urban opportunities that links: mobility, reusing the railroad for as public transport; regeneration, recovering surrounding public spaces; and reconversion, transforming nearby industries with new programs.
The project reacts to the uncertain future of the railroad to allow future opportunities to happen. Thus, the places for potential new stations are identified for Urban Dynamizers. These are punctual interventions that condense activities and guard the existing space before being occupied. Nevertheless, they are not conditioned to the implementation of train transport, functioning until it arrives. Three main strategies are proposed for each dynamizer: 1. Let the uncertain happen: the residual space of the railroad is rehabilitated, reserving it for the future station. 2. Create new public space: An elevated public spaced is proposed, taking the measurements of the most common public space in Lima: the sports court. 3. Activate the void: new public equipment is proposed, in response to the necessities of each neighborhood.
The project defines a catalog of architecture components that allows the dynamizer to grow from a minimum unit. In the urban layer, several strategies are proposed to regenerate the neighborhood in phases. This system allows itself to replicate and adapt progressively the project at each urban point identified. It is in this way that the forgotten space of the railroad turns into a new axis of urban opportunities for Lima, capable of articulating the local and metropolitan dynamics of its citizens.
Metropolitan nodes identified
Instead of waiting for a complete ideal masterplan to be accomplished, the project aims to start transforming the forgotten infrastructure through punctual interventions that create new opportunities from day 1.