‘Decolonising the Modern Wastescape’ explores the intersection between modernity and indigenous philosophies in the abandoned and old walled landfill of Alto Hospicio, Chile. The aim is to decolonise ancestral knowledge and sacred practices by designing with traditional Indigenous structures, while using contemporary strategies to address technical problems such as gas emissions, land recovery and water use for the surrounding community.

A new cooperative garden is envisioned to create public spaces that offer relief from extreme urban and desert climatic conditions. This includes developing fog-capturing methods that explore the boundary between nature in arid climates and anthropocentric ways of living, resisting current practices of land exploitation and energy waste.

The proposal becomes the subject of pedagogy by using local Indigenous structures, recycled materials, xerophytic landscapes and fog-capturing systems to raise awareness of the value of land, water and landfill remediation. It confronts the modern neoliberal hegemony that has commodified and profited from our natural resources. Hence, the project seeks to work in symbiosis with nature to introduce an egalitarian, community, cooperative and artisan conception of society, transforming current practices to gradually decrease the people's ecological footprint.