Architectural office: RAMA Estudio
Architects: Carolina Rodas – Felipe Donoso – Carla Chávez
E-mail: info@ramaestudioec.com
Office Location: Ecuador
Year: 2020
Area: 1098 m2
Location: Pasaje Pelileo – Ambato, Ecuador
Pictures: JAG Studio, Nación Films, Rama Estudio
Video: Nación Films
Desgin Team: Carolina Rodas, Felipe Donoso, Carla Chávez, Eduardo Pullas, Diego Vélez,
Michael Benitez, Maria Jose Teran Jaramillo, Martin Soria,
Colaborators: Francis Guitierrez, Andrés Heredia
Client: Municipio de Ambato
Engineers: Ing. Patricio Vasco – Estructural Engineer
Ing. Javier García – Electrical Engineer
Ing. Alfonso Buchelli – Hidrosanitary Engineer
Landscape design: Rama Estudio
The Idea
Connectivity and revalorization of the neighborhood on the hillside have been fundamental aspects for the project since it is not only about implementing a visible icon in all the city, but the very beginning of a full system of staircases and recovery of productive spaces on the hillside. Additionally, the proposal recovers the memory of the place re-incorporating symbols of the existing popular management.
This is the case of the alarm located at the beginning of the staircases of the Pelileo passage which used to sound indicating the time at morning afternoon and night. This alarm was taken away from the zone 15 years ago. This precedent highlights the importance of the symbol of time in the zone, and sets the first guideline for the location of a functional and iconic element in the place.
The project takes advantage of the juncture and tradition of contribution of clocks to the city since Ambato’s GAD (Decentralized Autonomous Government) by means of the city major Engineer Luis Amoroso, extends a proposal of donation of a clock for the city to FAIRIS , a private business that has contributed with his donation for the fourth time in order to improve the urban environment of our city.
In parallel the optative of Urban Replicable Recipes, guided by Rama Studio in the “Universidad Tecnolὀgica Indoamericana”, an urban and architectural analysis is made with the purpose of rising technical, visual, and social information, contributing in that way to the pursuit of the perfect place for the location of the clock in the city.
Starting from this context analysis and taking into account the petition of the municipality to generate an element that will allow to connect the staircases to the Quis Quis avenue .It is proposed to unify all of the elements and generate a whole progressive project that will allow the improvement of the neighborhood on the hillside.
In this way the Project is developed based in strategies that could be replicated in other staircases to complete the project at an urban level.
Strategies are the base for the project in order for it to sustain itself in the future so that it can have a bigger impact on the city. These steps are generalities that should be taken into account when starting a new process in the zones surrounding the staircases, they have been developed through participation of the habitants of the intervention in the first staircase.
Replicable Strategies
Integration of actors, the proposals should include private, municipal, community, academic, cultural equipment. The Sinergy between the parts allows to speed up the processes and guarantee the developing and tracking of the project.
This first point is key for the execution and sustainability of the process. The Municipality promotes the process in all of the governmental instances and also in the budget flow for the proposal, private business helps in the execution of the project to lighten the municipality investment, the academy contributes with the analysis and diagnose of the zone of intervention , finally technical and cultural equipment are the engine for the development of public spaces for a continuous use.
This project joins various developers of different areas for its analysis design and execution. The municipality of Ambato city; FAIRIS C.A from the private business; The “Universidad Tecnologia Indoamerica” from, the academic part in the analysis stage, Rama Studio as independent developers; and the community of the San José de Bellavista and Altivo Ambateño as main agents of this program.
Participation of the Neighborhood, the inhabitants have to be part of the analysis, diagnose, problem detection and solution process. The technical team must guide and provide new options for the generation of proposals at an infrastructure level. The project is consolidated by means of the participative design of the inhabitants, and takes shape with the help of all of the technical team.
Total projects the proposals must follow the interconnection of staircases and occupation of spaces that are not being used, integrating services for the neighborhood, and generating public spaces for the city. The proposals must integrate commerce, cultural encountering spaces, recreation areas, and recovery of green spaces on the hillside. All of this in the frame of sustainability and viability for the project development.
Continuous use, the intention is that every projected space has a day-to-day use in the neighborhood, and a specific use for the people visiting it. A program of activities and a cultural gestor that wants to develop Projects in these scenarios is vital so that the Project Will always be alive without mattering the temporality. With this in mind it is intended to revalorize the zone, make it more secure and convert it into a landmark of the city.
The Project of “Escalinatas y el Tiempo” (StairS and Time) is located in between the Quis Quis Avenue and the Olmedo y Castillo Street. The project contemplates three stages of design and construction, being the first of them the reason for this consultancy.
From the architectonic point of view, it was decided that for a better integration with the already built surroundings, the architectonic elements should answer to a specific function raised by the necessity of the inhabitants close to the staircase, potentiating the exterior gathering spaces and providing connection facilities for a better utility of them. The spaces are thought from the day-to-day point of view, places where you can eat, talk, work, play, watch. Generating a great Urban experiential landmark full of continuous activity for the city.
System of Mobility and circulations
The intention was to generate a linear circulation that allows a direct in a shorter period of time by the use of electric stairs that would help the pedestrian in between long paths. The electric stairs connect with the clock tower. This path will potentiate the connectivity in between platforms and will increment the use of the staircases by efficiency.
For the determination of the implementation of electric staircases it was taken into account various factors of usability in-situ reflecting that during periods of high pedestrian density, the biggest use of the staircase was in west direction, towards the downtown (down slope), while ascending towards the Quis Quis avenue the quantity of pedestrians is notoriously lower since the difficulties to go down are minimal taking only 3 minutes. In the other hand, the displacement while ascending can take up to 12 minutes meaning a considerable amount of physical effort for the inhabitants and visitors of the zone.
This tool is proposed as part of a system of pedestrian mobility, to connect platforms 1 and 3, providing a different option to using the car in between these two platforms dynamizing the life of the neighborhood and in this way making it more secure
The Project centers in the following action axes:
- Provide a new conception of the neighborhood on the hillside.
- Promote the connection and vertical mobility
- Rescue unused spaces
- Promote day-to-day and cultural activities
- Improve community integration
- Increment green spaces
- Strengthen the local tourism
- Give priority to the pedestrians
- Boost the economy
With these axes a global logic that allows to address the problems from an honest point of view is created, placing as a priority the well being mainly of the neighbors.
