The Merchants of Venice

A prize winning competition entry in the 2G-Competition for the Venice Lagoon with over 560 proposals.
Assertion from the jury report with Anne Lacaton as the jury president describe the project quite well: "The forcefulness with which the proposal re-posits the rules of the competition in terms of a critical pragmatism of those rules, one that is aware of the flows of capital."

To read the whole proposal: Click the images below and read the project as a comic:

Capilla para el tio

After a Llama sacrificial get-together in the highest located town on earth, we were approached by some miners that soon learned that we were skilled architects.
Knowing about their dreadful conditions inside the mountain that is called “The Mountain that eats men”, we offered them to do a pro-bono project. We thought that maybe they wanted some light or maybe some nice upgrade on their old mine wagons.
But the only thing that they wanted was to please Tio, a devil that is the owner of the mountain, were over 8 million people has died over the years. The conditions inside of the mine are so harsh that the only reasonable thing to believe in is this guy.

So we decided to make a shrine were they could give Tio gifts.

The shrine with gifts

Happy miners in their new chapel

We explored the mine and found a promising spot a couple of hundred meters inside, a place which where warm and ample enough to allow a comfortable gathering of the miners. Our dynamite expert refined our site so that we got a more eloquent altar and walls.
After a couple of days the design was ready, a cavernous niche in red paint, an altar in silver and a path of silver stone slabs leading up to it.
The ground was covered with okra paint, enhancing the redness of the place. A red wooden bench was put on the lowest level.
As a finish we covered the shrine in glitter so when the head-lamps from the miners wander around it will reflect a magical shine.

The village of Potosi

Plan

Section

Plan of the mine