Fuerte Bulnes (Fort Bulnes) is a National Historical Monument located 60 kms south of Punta Arenas, built around a fort founded in 1845 by the Chilean government as a way of securing Magellan’s Strait to Chile’s territory.

In 2014, the management of the park decided that it was time to renovate this attraction. The new Visitors Centre was built and local artist Daniela Kovacic was hired as project manager/director to illustrate a new take on what Fuerte Bulnes represents. 

This map shows the constellations belonging to the Southern hemisphere. It was designed to provide an impressive welcome ambient and to serve as an introduction to the show. The map was printed throughout 72 sintra planks, each measuring 120x240 cms and attached with velcro to the aluminum beams that shape this vault. Before lifting them to their final position, we drilled, installed and connected more than 1500 LEDs that give the final impression to this piece.

The astrolabe, sitting right under the ceiling, was modeled after an 18th century image. I had the chance to do this model and work with the suppliers in both Santiago and Punta Arenas. The builder in Santiago handled the CNC process for the MDF elements and a local engineering company did the metalwork and structural calculations to mount it.

The bathymetry (an underwater terrain map) shows the last bit of the American continent and Tierra del Fuego island, and consists of 8 layers that show the ocean’s depth, attached to one another with expansion bolts, made with CNC.

This piece was a collective work between scientists who acquired the requested data and the design team that gave the dimensions and materials to the makers in Santiago.