Garden of unearthly Delights

Quito, Ecuador
2008

A competition was held to turn Quito's Mariscal Sucre International Airport into an urban park. Our proposal takes one of the site’s most distinguishing geographic features, its proximity to the equator, as the primary generator of the design.
As daylight and temperature in quito remain constant throughout the year, the conventional notion of seasons is undermined. Playing with these unvarying environmental conditions, the project introduces a new game of synthesizing seasonal conditions. Conditions are choreographed to create an otherworldly theatre of seasonality. This allows for the literal building of a new and hyper-real "Temple of Flora". Transcendent seasons are forged - summer paired with winter, spring crossed with fall; three or four seasons could be combined together: ‘andean summer’, ‘the fall of spring in winter’ and ‘coevalution’. The park is envisioned as a highly experiential green space that allows the intensity of experiencing several seasons simultaneously. Born from unique environmental conditions, the introduction of a planting and water management framework will create an animated icon for the city, a new garden of unearthly delights.