Interview with Andrea Orellana

Andrea Orellana is a landscape designer who, as she says, “swims against the stream”. She has a Bachelor of Science and Environmental Studies from the Central University of Chile. Andrea is the founder of Paisajismo Interior, a corporate website that has evolved into a diffusion and transmission website of landscape architecture and environmental topics. The website involves the contributors’ work and is based in Chile. Andrea is passionate about technology and the reutilization of all present elements and native flora in her projects.

Andrea, thank you for allowing Land8Lounge’ers to learn more about your perspectives about landscape architecture in Chile!

Thank you for your interest in a landscape designer in the other side of the world.

What were some of the most valuable lessons that you learned in your program at Santiago, Chile, and how have you been able to use these lessons in your professional life?

Insight. Knowing the best medium and where it is going to be located and its intervention, since the point of view of the landscape designer is being capable of seeing what other professionals can’t appreciate or do not understand. This basic rule has been the most useful and advantageous to me, making me always be careful to view all points that can be affected in the future. We have been taught that we are the only professionals capable of speaking with an architect, biologist, geographer and designer at the same time and understand their points of view.

What types of projects have you been able to work on at Paisajismo Interior?

At the moment, Paisajismo Interior is in a process of creation, doing several private garden projects. At this time I’m developing a master plan and biological corridors over the island hills in the city of Concepción, Chile. Besides those, the website works as a diffusion and transmission media about landscaping and environmental topics in Chile, a kind of environmental education online which works with the contribution of an engineer in Renobables Resources (Universidad de Chile), a geography student (Universidad de Concepción) and me, with a Licenciada en Ciencias y Artes del Medioambiente (Bachelor of Sciences and Arts of Environmental Studies) and Ecóloga Paisajista (Ecologist Landscape Designer).

Are there any local projects in Santiago that you have found inspiring?

I like the Bicentennial Park in Vitacura, Santiago which is designed by Teodoro Fernández and located south of the Mapocho river, extending across Santiago. The park integrates the most important milestones of the city (The Andes mountain range, Mapocho River, Saint Cristobal hill) by the means of simple and modern lines which freshen the park concept and broaden the entire city. It is one of the most innovative parks that exist in the city. There is also the Andre Jarland Park in the Pedro Aguirre Cerda commune in Santiago. The distinctive feature of this park is that it is the first park to be built over a landfill in Chile. It needed an immense amount of initial work to prepare the ground and now it has been operational for 15 years without any inconvenience. What was once a ruined and forgotten area of the city now gives value and identity to the locality known by its mainly low socioeconomic status population.

Where would you like to travel and what would you most like to see?

I would like to visit New York to learn in depth about the High Line project.

You and me both! And finally, what are your favorite things to do in Chile? What should fellow Land8Loungers should they chose to visit Chile?

Uf! In Santiago everyone should see The Andes after a rain is staggering, milky white, magnificent and ravishing.

Pay a visit to the south of Chile and their National Parks. Their amount and diversity of forests and native flora is awe-inspiring because it adds to the special value of its biodiversity unique to the world. You could hike all of the parks.

Also, drop by the driest desert in the world that is capable of blooming with a series of native species. “El desierto florido” is a unique climatic phenomenon that occurs only in the Atacama Desert.