The project would cater to visitors on their way into the park, taking them through the history of wind farm technologies with hands-on installations. Though perhaps more importantly, the site would be used as a hub, where international and local experts would be able to share ideas and develop workshops with the people of Juancho. The goal is to establish a knowledge base, with the help of local participation, which would in turn aid communities and farmers in gaining access to modern environmental strategies. The project would be a social, as well as economic and cultural catalyst to this impoverished region of the country.

Providing a zero carbon footprint, the building utilises natural ventilation assisted by solar- activated cooling towers. The landscape design incorporates a reed-bed water filtration system for the treatment of greywater which would later be used for irrigation. All waste would be recycled. The ‘intensive’ green roof is designed as a carpet sweeping over the building, visually bonding it to the ground. At the highest point of the building, a viewing platform cantilevers from a central turret, offering unobstructed views of the wind-turbine array, setting the Baoruco Mountain range and the Jaragua park as a backdrop beyond it.

In a country where the word ‘sustainable’ is used as decoration to hollow rhetoric, this building, will not be implemented, but if it were it would help mark the steps of a country returning to a life of communion with nature. 

text by - Adolfo Despradel