Originally a spanish fortress standing on a small plateau on top of a hill, Cerro Carcel, later: a
jail, for at least 150 years, and finally: a cultural center. This place has undergone important
programmatic transformations. On year 2007 Oscar Niemayer offered the government a project
as a gift for the city, but it was rejected by the local community which felt the design didn’t
suit well in the architectural urban context. The government then launched an international
architectural competition to design Valparaiso’s Cultural Center, with 114 competition entries
it turned out to be the biggest architectural competition in chilean history.

We observed three main characteristics in the existing situation:

1. A big horizontal Open Space - very rare among the hills of Vaparaiso, but very fit for public
meetings.
2. A Wall and an elevated panoramic surveillance walk on top of it (the former guards used it
to watch the inmates.
3. Two Buildings: The cell building and a small brick ammunition dump.

Our strategy was:

1. To restore and highlight the existing buildings.
2. Improving - potentiating the patio, make the new facilities disappear from within, in this
way the prexisting architecture stands out instead of being clotted with the new. The new
facilities are organized as a ring adjoining and emphasizing the perimetral boundaries and the
historic wall.
3. Finally, relating the patio with the wall and the surveillance walk by means of a tilted park
(now the panoramic walk is accesible and offers views to the outside, the bay, the city and
the far landscape).
The incline serves a triple purpose: concealing the new buildings, connecting the patio with
the formerly unreachable walk and exterior views, and at the same time endows the park with
its essential spatial quality: the slope - and relates the park with Valparaiso’s topographical
identity.