Mapuche`s Cultural Center in Temuco Part 2 Project 2002 Mares Sandor Pontifical Catholic University of Chile Santiago | Chile "PLAZA DEL ENCUENTRO", MAPUCHE CULTURAL CENTER IN THE CITY OF TEMUCO, CHILE. THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE MAPUCHE CULTURE IN THE URBAN CONDITION. 1. The intention of the project is to encompass both the Mapuche and huinka cultures. Presenting and developing for the non-Mapuche people a different cultural reality, whose poetic sensibility lies in the Mapuche way of inhabiting a territory. At the same time the project strives to build an appropriate space within the city of Temuco to embrace the Mapuche culture.2. To create through the art of architecture, the Cosmo-vision of the pueblo Mapuche, and through this to resolve the previously expressed duality, namely: through the means of our western culture to develop and create a Mapuche identity. In this way both cultures can penetrate the spatial dynamics the project suggests. The Mapuche people experience space in a completely different way than we, as westerners do. For the Mapuche, the perimeter defining “their” territory, is the circumference around each person to the extent where sky and earth meet in the horizon. In this way “their” space is dynamic and directly attached to each individual and their displacement through space. The site in my project is defined in the same way. On one hand is Conuhn Huenun hill, which then dips into the valley and in flaked by Ñielol hill creating a geographic axis through the site. On the other hand the project articulates the rural and civic centres of the city creating the second defining axis that highlight the importance of the site.The project is organized in different and spontaneous rings of activity, such as the market place and the cultural centre, which create and configure an empty central space (“the meeting place”). The everyday activities are developed in these various rings of activity which together form a homogenous density. This homogenous density blurs the boundaries and permits a more spontaneous placements of diverse activities. Through these gestures the project strives to open a city which is closed in itself and thus allow it to take greater advantage of its unique location and grand geography. "PLAZA DEL ENCUENTRO", MAPUCHE CULTURAL CENTER IN THE CITY OF TEMUCO, CHILE. THE CONTRIBUTION OF THE MAPUCHE CULTURE IN THE URBAN CONDITION. The intention of the project is to bridge the Mapuche cultural heritage within a western urban layout. The Mapuche people experience space in a completely different way than we, as westerners do. For the Mapuche, the perimeter defining “their” territory, is the circumference around each person to the extent where sky and earth meet in the horizon. In this way “their” space is dynamic and directly attached to each individual and their displacement through space. The site in my project is defined in the same way. On one hand is Conuhn Huenun hill, which then dips into the valley and in flaked by Ñielol hill creating a geographic axis through the site. On the other hand the project articulates the rural and civic centres of the city creating the second defining axis that highlight the importance of the site.The project is organized in different and spontaneous rings of activity, such as the market place and the cultural centre, which create and configure an empty central space (“the meeting place”). The everyday activities are developed in these various rings of activity which together form a homogenous density. This homogenous density blurs the boundaries and permits a more spontaneous placements of diverse activities. Through these gestures the project strives to open a city which is closed in itself and thus allow it to take greater advantage of its unique location and grand geography.