Designing landlinks: Strategies for enhancing the natural and cultural heritage along the edge of the Llanquihue Lake (Chile)

The following thesis aims to study the landscape on the Llanquihue Lake edge, situated in the North Patagonia of Chile. Therefore, the investigation analyzes the different systems that characterize the lake edge, focusing on facing the fragmentation of the natural and cultural heritage systems. This fragmentation is a discontinuity that produces the degradation of the heritage, due to its insolation or friction with other systems such as the rural and urban. The importance of reconnecting and reconciling them is to protect them, raise awareness, give them value, and improve the habitability of the people who inhabit the area. Consequently, the thesis proposes a design strategy based on the operational concept of ‘landlinks’. The strategy works on different scales, from the vast to the local one, to approach the fragmentation of the lake edge. It enhances abandoned spaces, fosters recreation, and makes accessible different kinds of landscapes. The design strategy does not oppose one system with another, it connects them, making them coexist in structured systems that allow a healthy transition between different landscapes (Gausa, 2020).