The “Sustainable post-tsunami reconstruction master plan” for Constitución has received further recognition in the Zumtobel Group Award category for Urban Developments and Initiatives.

The video presentation of the project (see link below) features Alejandro Aravena, Elemental; Iván Chamorro, Arauco Forestry; and Eugenio Tironi, Tironi Asociados. “Participatory design is not trying to ask people to validate the right answer – but starts by understanding what is the right question,” says Alejandro Aravena.

Supplemented by empirical evidence from the most recent tsunami, the architects relied on mathematical models and laboratory trials. Implementing their master plan proved very challenging both politically and socially, because it required the city to expropriate private land along the riverbank. Elemental’s successful approach was to rely on participatory design to define the citizens’ needs and engage them in the planning process. Today, four years after the earthquake, the individual projects from the master plan are being implemented.

“In Constitución, the population has managed to apply the necessary innovation to ensure its protection against future flooding. By adopting a bottom-up approach, in a very constructive way a joint decision has been reached regarding what the city should look like in the future. This exemplary concept is not restricted to Constitución, but could also apply in many geographies around the world that have been destroyed by natural disasters,” noted the jury, led by Winy Maas.

The Austrian lighting group, Zumtobel, had invited submissions for the award in three categories: Applied Innovations, Buildings, and Urban Developments & Initiatives. The jury had initially selected 15 projects as nominees from among the 356 submissions for the fourth Zumtobel Group Award, which was again curated by Aedes Architecture Forum in Berlin.