The University of Gastronomic, Tourism and Environmental Sciences (UCGTA) of Santa María del Mar, promoted by PUCP (Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú) and the Peruvian chef Gastón Acurio, emerges to be a world-wide reference university in teaching, a tool of social transformation and an example of ecological development in the landscape.
The 25 hectares of the park is located within a delicate desert ecosystem bordering the Pacific Ocean, of great scenic value. The uniqueness of the ecosystem helps to generate a disruptive environment in which creativity, forefront, consistency, respect for the environment and biodiversity, delicacy of landscape implementation, blending of cultures and concepts, balance between traditional and technology, surprise and magic are the main concepts.
The key challenge of the project is to develop a consistent proposal - both in Educational Project and in its concretion in the Master Plan - capable of transforming itself into an emotional experience. This means locating as many systems and variables as possible, tracing processes by identifying the complete cycle of each one, and finally integrating them both individually and transversally into an intelligible global cycle. Thus, we can cook between orchards, dive and fish in the water that has been recycled after being used to scrub dishes, or read among plants that purify the water we drink while transforming a barren desert landscape into a knowledge garden.
The proposal moves away from "urban planning" and shifts to a "landscape project" at all scales. Thus, in the interior, the orchards are integrated with the ponds and aquariums purified with macrophytes plants, in which it is possible to fish. From the urban surroundings, the image of the project is a forest in the desert. At territorial scale, the only thing of the project that is perceived is a field of flowers.
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