THE EXCHANGE POINT
Figure 42. Panama and Global Submarine Fibre-Optic Cables.[/inmargin]
Corozal’s role as a gateway to Panama for global communications networks has been largely unchallenged since the middle of the 20th century. Formerly a node in the US Army’s communication infrastructure, it now hosts a vital Cable Landing Point and Cable Landing Station where several submarine and terrestrial cables meet and come ashore, linking Panama to the global internet network.
Figure 43. The Exchange Point, Corozal. Image © 2024 Google, Airbus.[/inmargin]
Looking at Corozal through the gaze of a satellite, traces of its interconnection become legible in the shape of a linear stretch of land, where cables run ashore from the depths of the sea. These are tapped into in the Panama Digital Gateway – a Cable Landing Station and colocation facility. Following the logic of enmeshment of data and its material dispositions, the proposition is to erect a structure that facilitates the processing, storage and transportation of material excavated for the expansion of the Archive. The proposed structure spans the length of the landing cables with a conveyor belt system, reversing the flux of data flowing onto the land and rock, back to the sea. A silo, located in proximity to road and rail connections, is equipped with a rock crusher, processing excavated material into rock dust and is designed to hold the annually excavated volume of rock, additionally spatialising the material impact of data that now came to call Ancon Hill its home.
Figure 44. The Exchange Point, Silo.[/inmargin]
Figure 45. The Exchange Point, Conveyor.[/inmargin]
Figure 46. The Exchange Point, View from Ancon Hill.[/inmargin]