Creating an interpretation center to value the miner historical past of Portovelo to safeguard the mining heritage; It will become the main tool to convey the beginnings of mining knowledge of the location to promote a new form of tourism.
The proposal is to use again old storage tanks and other obsolete items.
The mechanical and industrial era replaced the landscape of Portovelo and filled it with infrastructure creating a new social, economic and spatial order.
Through an architectural design it is generated a tour by the ruins, equipped with low-cost interactive spaces; in order to create in users authentic sensations where they can see the history of the place.
The project rescues culture and working memory; The history focuses on gold, one of the natural resources most coveted by man.
The goal is to become the economical, social and cultural development engine, potentiating the local economy.
The Interpretation Center will become the Portovelo canton embryo of cultural, social and economic development. Getting an identity from the place’s historical social point of view; recreational activities, workshops and cultural programs.
Composed of seven rooms, reception room, interpretation room, SADCO model mining operation living room, rest rooms, recreational area - gold extraction process -, audiovisual room, souvenirs room and cafeteria and space for complementary activities.
A project with abundant potential in educational and cultural terms.
I look with this proposal, the functionality of the building, the convenience of users, but mainly to maintain the originality of the tanks and industrial architecture.
Grandparents, through stories that convey the history of an era, SADCO was the miners school.
Insensitivity, neglect and vandalism have taken a heavy toll to the place; however, it is still possible to see elements that still remain.