Flood Mitigation through Landscape: Puerto Azul

2007

Project Leads:

Ignacio Cardona, Oberdan De Lucia

Team:

Gibrana Rincones, Ana Armas, Rafael Pernía

Consultant:

Clara Chorro, Landscape

Client:

Club Puerto Azul

Location:

Vargas, Venezuela

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Developed in response to the vulnerability exposed by the 1999 Vargas mudslides, this project explored landscape as infrastructure for flood mitigation and territorial resilience. Drawing from Ian McHarg’s layered landscape analysis, the proposal mapped paths, barriers, boundaries, and fluvial terraces to generate a new spatial organization connecting recreational areas with the coastline.

Rather than treating flood protection as an isolated engineering system, the proposal integrated risk mitigation into the design of the landscape. A system of fluvial terraces reorganized the terrain to reduce vulnerability to future flooding and mudslides while simultaneously structuring public space, circulation, and relationships with the coast.