CAW Arquitectos Stabilizes an Antofagasta Hillside with Planted Terraces and Slatted Timber Shade

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This article covers topics related to Landscape Design, Architecture. In Antofagasta's Las Brisas sector, a 13,500 m² park uses vegetation, stone terraces and timber canopies as living infrastructure on unstable ground.

In Antofagasta's Las Brisas sector, a 13,500 m² park uses vegetation, stone terraces and timber canopies as living infrastructure on unstable ground.

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UNI Editorial published Blog under Landscape Design, Architecture on Oct 11, 2026

Antofagasta is a city pressed between the Pacific and the Coast Range. Its newer neighborhoods climb the foothills onto ground that is steep, sandy, sun-blasted and almost rainless. In the Las Brisas sector, CAW Arquitectos, led by Rodrigo Werner and Juan Pablo Cacciuttolo, has turned one of these degraded slopes into René Schneider Park. The park covers 13,500 m² and was completed in 2025. It is a long, terraced strip that stitches a hillside back into the everyday routines of the people living above and below it.

What interests us most is the hierarchy of the project rather than its appearance. The team frames the park through Nature-Based Solutions. Planting does the stabilizing, shading and water management, and the built elements support that work. Many desert parks treat vegetation as a reward placed on top of hard engineering. Here the order is closer to the reverse. Stone walls, ramps and slatted canopies exist so that plants can take hold on ground that has a record of landslides.

A Zigzag Drawn Across Two Roads

Aerial top-down view of zigzagging walkways, timber-slatted canopies and planted terraces of succulents and grasses between two roads

Aerial view of slatted timber shade roofs and planted slopes stepping down beside a busy road in daylight

From the air, the logic is clear. Walkways zigzag between two roads and break a slope that people would otherwise scramble up or avoid. The canopies sit at the turns and edges where people naturally stop. Between them, planted terraces of succulents and grasses fill the remaining ground in bands.

The zigzag does two jobs. It gives you a walkable gradient on a hillside that is too steep for a direct line. It also breaks the site into short runs, so water and soil have less distance to pick up speed. On sandy ground with landslide risk, that second job may matter more than the first.

Stone, Stairs and Ground That Stays Put

Concrete stairway climbing between a stone retaining wall and grasses toward a slatted timber canopy, with a walker in a cap under blue sky

Diagonal timber slat screen above stone retaining walls and terraced beds of grasses and silvery shrubs, with a brown mountain behind

Close-up of layered slat canopies and mesh railing over a stone wall, with rosemary and grasses in the foreground under a cloudy sky

Stone retaining walls carry most of the structural load of the landscape. They hold terraced beds of grasses, rosemary and silvery shrubs, and they set the rhythm of the climb. Concrete stairs run alongside them, plain and direct, while the walls provide the texture.

The planting palette is visibly built for drought. Silver foliage, tough grasses and aromatic shrubs suit a city that gets almost no rain. These are not decorative choices. Root systems in each bed bind the sandy soil the walls hold back, which is the core idea of the Nature-Based Solutions approach in physical form.

Slatted Timber as Climate Equipment

Shaded promenade under a slatted timber roof on steel posts, with concrete stools, seated people and a dog in afternoon light

Concrete table tennis tables and round stools under timber-slatted canopies on a hillside promenade at dusk, a blurred child mid-game

Shade is the scarcest resource in Antofagasta, and the canopies treat it as such. Slatted timber roofs on slender steel posts cover the promenade, the concrete stools and the table tennis tables. They filter the sun rather than block it, and they let the prevailing wind pass through, which is the right call on an exposed ridge.

The plans show these structures were also meant to carry climbing vegetation over time. In the long run, shade will come from leaves as well as timber, and the slats work partly as a trellis. We will be watching whether irrigation and maintenance allow that layer to grow in. It is the part of the scheme most exposed to municipal budgets.

Play Under Diagonal Shadows

Timber-roofed walkway beside a sand play area with a log seesaw, as visitors stroll above a hillside city in bright sun

Two girls on a log seesaw over sand, with diagonal timber slat shadows falling across the ground in hazy midday sun

The play equipment is simple: a log seesaw in a sand pit beside a timber-roofed walkway. Diagonal slat shadows cross the sand, so the canopy shapes the ground children play on as well as the air above them. Placing play beside the main walkway keeps parents close and keeps the path busy, which also helps with passive surveillance.

The low-tech equipment suits the place. Logs, sand and cast concrete tables survive harsh UV and constant wind better than proprietary playground kits. They also make the park feel like part of the hillside rather than a catalog product placed on top of it.

Lookouts Toward the City and the Pacific

Viewing terrace under a slatted timber canopy, a woman at the steel railing facing a hillside city and distant ocean in bright sun

Stone-walled lookout with mesh railing above a flowering slope, a couple at the edge and a concrete stair rising toward the slatted screen

The best spatial moments are the lookouts. Stone-walled terraces push out over flowering slopes, with steel and mesh railings facing down across the city to the ocean. A hillside that once separated neighborhoods now gives them a shared view. That may be the most persuasive argument for investing in foothill land that many cities leave empty.

After Dark on the Slope

Two blurred children playing at a concrete ping-pong table beneath a slatted timber screen at dusk, with city lights behind

Night view of a planted slope between a rust-toned mesh railing, a boardwalk ramp and a plaza where families gather under street lamps

Dusk view of a slatted timber screen over a hilltop plaza, with a grassy embankment and city lights spread below

The night images reveal the social side of the project. Children play table tennis under the slats at dusk, families gather on the lower plaza under street lamps, and the rust-toned mesh railings outline the ramps against the lights below. In a hot climate, evenings are when public space gets used most, and the lighting and layout recognize that.

A degraded slope is often a dark slope, and dark slopes feel unsafe. By lighting the terraces and giving people reasons to linger after sunset, the park reclaims both ground and time.

Plans and Drawings

Location plan drawing over satellite imagery showing a long linear park threaded through a dense street grid below arid hills

General architectural plan drawing of an elongated park with labeled plazas, access points, a sports court and planted slopes

Plan drawing of canopies and tree species along the park, with arrows marking wind directions and views toward the city

Plan drawing of the green slope areas in yellow-green, distinguishing low planting from climbing vegetation on shade structures

Paving plan drawing of an elongated hillside park showing terrace levels with elevation markers, a sports court and surrounding street blocks

Section drawing A-A of a stepped slope with retaining walls, geoweb planted banks, a shaded lookout plaza and figures on the terraces

Section drawing B-B of a terraced hillside with stepped retaining walls, vegetated slopes, a pergola lookout plaza and people on each level

Two west elevation drawings of the terraced park against a dry mountain ridge, with labeled lookouts, timber screens and planting

Axonometric diagram of planted terraces and ramps showing coastal fog, water runoff arrows, shade structures and numbered landscape components

Isometric section drawing of the terraced park with ramps, timber screens, a central plaza with people, play area and dense planted slopes

Isometric section drawing of a planted hillside park with zigzag ramps, terraces, a play area and canopy shelters, lit at dusk

The drawings show that the climate thinking runs deeper than the photographs suggest. The canopy plan marks wind directions and view corridors. The vegetation plan separates low planting from climbing species meant for the shade structures. Sections A-A and B-B show geoweb-reinforced planted banks between stepped retaining walls, which is the hidden engineering beneath the greenery.

The axonometric is the most revealing drawing. It traces coastal fog and runoff paths across the terraces, which suggests the landscape is designed to capture what little moisture this coast provides. The isometric sections then bring the system together into one inhabited slope of ramps, plazas, play and shelter.

Why This Project Matters

Latin American cities have many hillsides like this one: steep, unstable, informally used and often written off. René Schneider Park offers a repeatable model. It reads the slope's hazards accurately and assigns each one a response. Plants stabilize the ground, walls hold it in place, slats provide shade and ramps make it walkable. None of these moves is exotic, and that ordinary quality is a strength.

The open question is time. The project's claim of living infrastructure depends on vegetation that must establish and mature in one of the driest urban settings in the world. If the planting thrives, Antofagasta gains more than a park. It gains evidence that its foothills can become civic ground. We think the bet is well placed, and we hope the city maintains it.

René Schneider Park by CAW Arquitectos (Rodrigo Werner and Juan Pablo Cacciuttolo), Las Brisas, Antofagasta, Chile. Area: 13,500 m². Completed: 2025. Photography: Rodrigo Werner.

About the Studio

CAW Arquitectos

Official website of CAW Arquitectos, one of the studios behind this project.

cawarchitects.com

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