Chapters authored
Privatization Versus Public Funding on the Atacama Desert Railway - An Interpretation
Part of the book: Infrastructure Design, Signalling and Security in Railway
Tourism and Immigration: The European Contribution to the Invention of Landscape and Hotel Industry in the Atacama Desert During the Nitrate Epoch, 1880–1930
This paper deals with the relation between European immigration and tourism industry in Atacama Desert. The period studied ranges from 1880 to 1930, coinciding with the greatest boom of the nitrate industry in Chile until the great nitrate crisis and world depression. Europeans arrived in Antofagasta Region between 1895 and 1920, developing different productive activities related to the nitrate exploitation and business, mainly by British, German, and Yugoslavian immigrants, and to a lesser extent by Spanish and Italians. The lodging industry, from hotels to boarding houses, grew tremendously owing to constant migration flows, both European and Latin American. As recreation sites were discovered on the coast, along with unexplored spaces in the hinterland, the possibility of a tourist landscape emerged and sustained by various European photo studios. The publicity of these recreation places was accompanied by gastronomy data and transportation by sea and earth, through different business guides issued since 1894.
Part of the book: Tourism
Natural and Cultural Landscapes in Atacama Desert: Between Tradition and Innovation
Climatic conditions modeling the landscape of the Chilean northern region are examined, along with how they could model different strategies to be inhabited by various demographic contingents in time. These experiences have persisted in the different geographic spaces of Atacama Desert, from the Andes at an elevation higher than 2000 m.a.s.l., going through the intermediate depression between 2000 and 500 m.a.s.l., to the coastline panorama. In the various shades of the desert climate and the experiences of several populations, life styles and spatial conceptions were posed in terms of their cosmic dimension from a deterministic view and pragmatic apprehension to a contemplation-like view. These conceptions between man and the landscape have assumed different relations of technology use, natural and energy resources, and a constructive-architectonic design in Atacama Desert, which have remained as monuments in the Chilean southern space.
Part of the book: Landscape Architecture