Sensitivity to natural heritage has been growing in the last half century in our country and although it has advanced, fears of what is new or applications that are too sectoral still remain when it comes to intervening in them.

The Polonio Portal project conceptualizes natural heritage in an intelligent and creative way, weighing the qualitative, the pragmatic and the management. Articulating the various actors, heritage and social practices and sustainability.
The rules of the competition requested to split the project into two buildings, a main one called “Portal del Polonio” that would be located near the R10 and that would contain the interchange program, with services and public offices as well as a space for the development of activities and Interpretive exhibitions that prepare the visitor who is going to enter the Cabo Polonio National Park. The second part of the project resolves a health services building and a small nursing room within the town of Polonio, its location (highly sensitive strategic decision) was referenced in the bases but later resolved together with the Ministry and the various actors. involved.

The Polonio Portal project conceptualizes natural heritage in an intelligent and creative way, weighing the qualitative, the pragmatic and the management. Articulating the various actors, heritage and social practices and sustainability.
The Portal Building is inspired by the tradition of rural architecture of Uruguay, reinterpreting the relationships of appropriation of the place. Between the buildings and the natural elements, the closest ones that make up the immediate environment of the habitat as well as the perception that the open field produces, on the other landscape scale, of the distant and melancholic look on the horizon.

The Polonio Portal project conceptualizes natural heritage in an intelligent and creative way, weighing the qualitative, the pragmatic and the management. Articulating the various actors, heritage and social practices and sustainability.
The project is inspired by the tradition of rural architecture in our country, re-interpreting the relationship of appropriation that exists between buildings and the immediate natural elements as well as the perception that the countryside produces at another landscape scale: from the distant view. and melancholic on the horizon.

In this sense, the project considers the following:

+ The location of the building (Reception Center) close to the existing pine forest, qualifying the nearby environment and altogether generating a strong mark on the smooth field.

+ Hierarchize the Puerta del Polonio complex from the sequenced perspective from the access and along the tree-lined path towards the building.

+ The use of natural and local construction techniques that minimize environmental impacts and enhance the visitor's experience of getting closer to nature.

+ Incorporate new interpretive techniques that allow a richer interaction of visitors with the Polonio and with the protected natural area in general. Starting from the interpretation center and its articulation with a series of real or fictional stories related to Polonium that the visitor can load into a multimedia player and experience live.

+ The construction of a fruit garden, a direct reference to the classic ranch house, with a diversity of interesting flowering and fruiting species throughout the year.