A threshold of opportunities: Via a la Costa, Ecuador

Guayaquil (Ecuador), is rapidly expanding city located within a biodiversity hotspot. Consistent with contemporary policies of the dispersed and extensive occupation of the territory, the new urban expansion area lies at the threshold of two protected natural areas: the Cerro Blanco Dry Forest and Salado Mangrove Faunistic Reserve which are-at a regional scale-part of the Tumbes-Choco-Magdalena Eco-region that runs across Panama, Colombia, Ecuador and Peru. This area has been increasingly disrupted by several land use changes and activities linked solely to economic profit. The intermingling of human activities, within natural protected areas creates a contested relation over their existence in the territory. Using interpretative mapping built on existing landscape logics, urbanization patterns and land uses, this paper reveal the different meanings of threshold-city and nature, extraction and protection, public and private-existing in this area. Projective cartographies for Via a la Costa will explore design potentials to create a more reciprocal relation between protected ecosystems and 'the urban'. Key words: hotspot city, urban expansion, protected natural areas, design opportunity.