The trip to Lota, Chile had a profound effect on the direction of the project, understanding of the needs of the people and municipality, and has inspired progress in a unique direction for each member of the group.
My efforts will be focused on the fish vendors in the Lota market. While in Lota we spent a relatively long time photo documenting the market streetscape (examples below), interviewing vendors, and getting a sense of the pride, vibrance, warmth and resilience displayed by the Lotinos who work there. We identified the market as the future of Lota’s tourist based economy. Not only does it already attract a small number of visitors, but it could become a stronger attraction through offering traditional Chilean crafts and foods that would appeal to tourists, more resting areas, cleaning up waste out of sight, and organizing stalls into sections where similar goods are sold. It offers the greatest opportunity for new entrepreneurs to start small businesses, as well as space for small businesses to work together to become larger.
With this in mind I’m focused on designing an improved fish stall that will replace the fish displays made of a wheelbarrow and plywood that are currently being used in some areas. The aim is to improve the ergonomics of the workstation for the vendor, make it more appealing to the buyers and tourists, and start a ripple effect of improvements throughout the market. These small fish stands could be feasibly changed for a relatively low cost with minimal disruption to the vendors. Small improvements in one area hopefully cause the market management and municipality to consider the positive effects of other improvements to this critical area of the city’s economy.
The concepts developed attempt to achieve these goals in slightly different manners, with varying degrees of success. Considerations to size, material, cost, construction, and aesthetics have been made in each. It’s likely that the final concept will combine elements from all of them as well as other features that have not yet been addressed.
Through our collaboration with the Institute Without Boundaries the projects developed by the Carleton group will fit into a larger system plan for the holistic revitalization of Lota.
In the coming weeks the concept will be further refined, taking into account the feedback received from the presentations made when this material was presented.
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