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TOTORA´S CUBE
TOTORA´S CUBE
Imbabura Province, Ecuador
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TOTORA´S CUBE
Imbabura Province, Ecuador
Firm
STATUS
Built
YEAR
2015
SIZE
0 sqft - 1000 sqft
BUDGET
$0 - 10K
The Project was developed by the group of architects ARCHQUID along with the indigenous community of the area and other institutions in the parish of San Rafael de La Laguna in Otavalo, province of Imbabura, Ecuador.
A fundamental part of this project revolves around the material investigation of the vegetable fiber known as “totora” from the design and building of a structure. Inside the multiple implications needed to concrete the project it was essential the understanding for the art and craft with which these fibers have been worked since pre-Inca times.
It was created an experimental cubical module of 3 meters long, with nine panels in each side, forming what it can be seen as an experiential catalogue of the different fabrics worked by the artisans. It was used a simple pure morphology, resignified from the material aspect, where they explored certain technical, structural and expressive qualities.
An unprecedented use of totora allowed reaching a specific and significant interiority that sieves the light and changes its character in a constant way.
The development of the building, as a result of communitarian work, was able to impregnate in a notorious way the inhabitants’ identity, which recognized and stimulated the autochthonous practices.
In the shores of San Pablo Lake there are “totorales” in constant regeneration. It can be perceived the existence of a spirit and consciousness in permanent relationship between the people of San Rafael and the material, which stablishes an identity with the territory, the population and the architecture.
The structure is made of wood, formed by two beams with a support strip and joints design to link the elements. The lower plane simply leans on a concrete slab where the cube stays pinned by its own weight. A secondary structure allows the collocation of the totora panels.
The cube finally establishes itself as a milestone highly visible from a very busy way, in a particular geographical context (a lake and a volcano) and a specific sociocultural area, which generates a center of identity, reunion and participation.
The link between the local artisans, the architects, the academy and the government reached identity reinforcement, a vernacular rescue that represented an opportunity to leave a contribution to the community which was tectonically manifested.
This Project has been recently honored in the Twentieth Pan-American Biennial of Architecture in Quito with the International Award in the category “Habitat and Development”, a reward given for its wide intervention in a culture that works with the totora, from which the economy depends. The Jury considered that the Cube enrolls in a traditional deep culture, in a contrast that reveals a handicraft practice and relate it with the landscape and the architecture, with which inspires new alternatives of economical and spatial local production.
CREDITS
Team Members for the project:
Director and Archquid founder: PhD. Arq. Federico Lerner (Argentina)
Arq. Andrés Fuentes (Ecuador)
Arq. Oscar Jara (Ecuador)
Arq. Victoria Jones (Argentina)
Arq. Mercedes Mena (Argentina)
A fundamental part of this project revolves around the material investigation of the vegetable fiber known as “totora” from the design and building of a structure. Inside the multiple implications needed to concrete the project it was essential the understanding for the art and craft with which these fibers have been worked since pre-Inca times.
It was created an experimental cubical module of 3 meters long, with nine panels in each side, forming what it can be seen as an experiential catalogue of the different fabrics worked by the artisans. It was used a simple pure morphology, resignified from the material aspect, where they explored certain technical, structural and expressive qualities.
An unprecedented use of totora allowed reaching a specific and significant interiority that sieves the light and changes its character in a constant way.
The development of the building, as a result of communitarian work, was able to impregnate in a notorious way the inhabitants’ identity, which recognized and stimulated the autochthonous practices.
In the shores of San Pablo Lake there are “totorales” in constant regeneration. It can be perceived the existence of a spirit and consciousness in permanent relationship between the people of San Rafael and the material, which stablishes an identity with the territory, the population and the architecture.
The structure is made of wood, formed by two beams with a support strip and joints design to link the elements. The lower plane simply leans on a concrete slab where the cube stays pinned by its own weight. A secondary structure allows the collocation of the totora panels.
The cube finally establishes itself as a milestone highly visible from a very busy way, in a particular geographical context (a lake and a volcano) and a specific sociocultural area, which generates a center of identity, reunion and participation.
The link between the local artisans, the architects, the academy and the government reached identity reinforcement, a vernacular rescue that represented an opportunity to leave a contribution to the community which was tectonically manifested.
This Project has been recently honored in the Twentieth Pan-American Biennial of Architecture in Quito with the International Award in the category “Habitat and Development”, a reward given for its wide intervention in a culture that works with the totora, from which the economy depends. The Jury considered that the Cube enrolls in a traditional deep culture, in a contrast that reveals a handicraft practice and relate it with the landscape and the architecture, with which inspires new alternatives of economical and spatial local production.
CREDITS
Team Members for the project:
Director and Archquid founder: PhD. Arq. Federico Lerner (Argentina)
Arq. Andrés Fuentes (Ecuador)
Arq. Oscar Jara (Ecuador)
Arq. Victoria Jones (Argentina)
Arq. Mercedes Mena (Argentina)
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