Learn from the past

A student lived for a month in Waorani territory. She wanted to record for posterity a manual about the process of constructing a traditional Waorani house. This traditional house can be described as roof-as-structure, there is no difference between roof and walls as they are one single element made from bended bambu covered by notted leaves of pambil, toad tongue and ungurahua.  

Please read the full manual here:

https://www.dspace.uce.edu.ec/handle/25000/18891 

Afterwards, another student work with the Waorani people, helping them with the design of the new headquarters of their organization on Shell, a rather large city in the Ecuadorian jungle. The most interesting fact was while the student and her tutor wated to use natural materials, the Waorani people wanted a modern, clean and secure building of concrete in which the traditional waorani was was going to be displayed as a sculpture in a showroom. A compromise was reached in which the student reinterpreted and modernized the Waorani "way of life" + their traditional way of construction with leaves and natural materials + modern architecture. 

The Waorani house despite its interesting use of leaves, suffers a lack of sun, natural light and fresh air that is unacceptable in modern standards of living and in the damp and humid atmosphere of the jungle, therefore, the building proposed by the student tried to geometrize and abstract the spatial volume of the traditional house with a new influx of light and natural ventilation. Please look at the result in the following link and join us in our reflections about the need to preserve the past but also to allow growth and change. Please look at this work here: 

https://issuu.com/carlaorozcomoya/docs/dossier_carla_orozco

https://www.dspace.uce.edu.ec/handle/25000/21826