- Inhabitat – Green Design, Innovation, Architecture, Green Building
-
https://inhabitat.com
-
World Monument Fund and American Express Unveil Sustainable Easter Island Visitor Center
Posted By
Tafline Laylin
On
In
Architecture,Other Gadgets |
Comments Disabled
[gallery_extend]
While tourist traffic to Easter Island is important, WMF wanted to ensure that it was managed to benefit, rather than deteriorate, the important archaeological sites on display there. The new green visitor center houses information about how to navigate the park in a manner that preserves the existing resources and provides an important model of what sustainability looks like.
How so, you may ask? In addition to constructing it around an existing warden station to reduce the project’s footprint, the visitor center was built using materials recycled from the previous structure. It also receives its energy from small solar and wind generators, and recycles rainwater. Finally, composting toilets keep the building nice and sanitary. A lot of love and care went into this attractive new center to ensure a continued harmony between curiosity and conservation.
+ World Monuments Fund
Via Dwell
[1]
Thousands of eager people bounce over to Easter Island every year to visit one of Chile’s most important UNESCO-protected heritage sites. But their desire to see hundreds of moia statues originally built between the 9th and 17th centuries AD to commemorate Rapa Nui ancestors comes with a grave environmental price. As part of their initiative to manage this tourism traffic, the World Monument Fund (WMF) teamed up with American Express to build a supergreen visitor center. Managed by CONAF, the Centro…
[2]
The building is designed to showcase the most advanced sustainable building techniques.
[3]
Built around an existing warden station, most of the building materials were recycled.
[4]
The site gets so much tourism traffic that the environment is becoming degraded.
[5]
The new visitor center helps to mitigate that by providing much needed information about how to treat the UNESCO-protected heritage site.
[6]
WMF and CONAF, the managing authority, incorporated composting toilets and recycled rainwater systems into the design.
[7]
And receive power from small solar and wind generators.
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]