Our thesis stems from a strong interest in the role of architecture in developing countries and by a thirst for knowledge, combined with the desire to experiment in the field, that led us to travel overseas in Latin America, Ecuador. We questioned ourselves several times about how architecture can be a resource and a useful tool to improve living conditions in the countries with considerable cultural and environmental resources, but also with socio-economic degradation, coming to strongly believe that the potential of a place are inherent in the history of the area, the city and its connective tissue, in people who live there and in their culture. It is through the exploitation “de lo que hay con lo que hay” (literally: of what is there with what is there) that you can make the assets of any given settlement best known and usable, knowing that tourism is a key resource to enable the socio-economic development of the local population, if appropriately involved in the activation dynamics and in the management of tourism-related activities. Lo que hay in the area of Lago San Pablo is a rural landscape heritage deserving of enhancement but contaminated by the urban model of the city that causes a substantial loss of identity and beauty; it is a strong contamination of the Lake; it is a marked lack of road connections; it is the strong ancestral culture of the Kichwa indigenous people who inhabit the territory; and it is the lack of tourism that weighs on the economy of the inhabitants. Landscape beauty, Kichwa culture and the strong cohesion of the community are the resources and the main tools of our project: we listened to the Genius Loci considering every aspect of indigenous traditions rooted on daily life, and we involved the people themselves in the entire design process, from design to construction. "Networking hubs for communities" is the strategy we provide for the creation of a master plan that embraces the Lake on three morphologically different levels (agua, tierra y sol with reference to the dominant elements of the Kichwa culture) on which we settle three concentric paths that combine points of landscape interest worthy of a historical and cultural enhancement, whether through an architectural intervention or not, and for whom we studied the journey by foot, by bicycle or on horseback. The goal is not only to strengthen the connective tissue and to directly involve the community so that it can be the main beneficiary of the economic effects induced by tourism, but above all make it aware of the social and economic value of their environmental and cultural heritage, stimulating it to its conservation and enhancement. Analyzing the various points of interest, we have identified those simply exploitable through their placement in a guided tour and those that need a little architectural intervention (from info-point for tourists at Lechero de Pucarà in the tierra path, to the crafts exhibition center at Sombreria en Angla in the sol path). This creates a three-dimensional network in which various hubs are interconnected with each other and they work because it is within the network that the local can really meet the global: the tourist has the opportunity to enter into the everyday life of a community, participating to a small craft workshop in an exhibition center run by the community itself and buying the product made with his own hands, contributing to sustain the population and to the enhancement of its culture. KAYMANTA, that in Kichwa language means FROM HERE, is the first hub of this network that has been thought, designed and built with the local community, placed in Cachiviru, in the Parroquia of San Rafael de la Laguna (agua path). Lo que hay is not only the heritage, but mainly the people and its participation is the most important aspect! We believe that architecture must make use of a valuable resource: the community. The sum of individual actions, albeit of a certain quality, does not lead to the common good, while collective action is the real answer to the problem; this is why we strongly believe that participatory design is a key tool to strengthen a project where the voice is not only the one of the architect, but where all actors can be part of a unanimous chorus. We collaborated with the community of Cachiviru through participatory workshops aimed at supporting our project idea, facing not only architectural aspects but also the socio-anthropological "architect - community" relationship, quite different from the one of "architect - client" to which we are accustomed in Europe. The project we have developed is the requalification of a public space intended primarily as a meeting place for the community (designed and built with the community and run by the same) and secondly for the tourist. The other tool we used for developing the project is the auto-construction, that has always been considered a problem related to the growth of informal settlements, but seen in this case under a different lens: we speak about “Minga” that is a reality inherent to Kichwa culture, where the community members help each other in a participatory construction process; we speak about guided designed auto-construction, where the economic budget is lowered and the building hands increased. The project, started in May 2015 with participatory workshops, ended the 13th of October 2015 with its inauguration.
KAYMANTA|DESDE AQUI è il titolo del nostro progetto di tesi che è stato pensato, progettato e costruito in Ecuador grazie ad un accordo di mobilità internazionale tra il Politecnico di Milano e l’Universidad Central del Ecuador di Quito. Questo progetto, sviluppato nella comunità di Cachiviru (San Rafael de la Laguna, Lago San Pablo) si pone in linea di continuità con ricerche e progetti di valorizzazione delle risorse architettoniche e ambientali per la riqualificazione degli insediamenti nei Paesi emergenti e in via di sviluppo, che da oltre vent’anni la nostra relatrice di tesi, Eleonora Bersani, conduce e condivide con colleghi nell’ambito del suo Dipartimento di Architettura e Studi Urbani al Politecnico di Milano; l’approccio di studio e di indirizzi di intervento è basato sulla convinzione che grandi siano le potenzialità insite nella storia del territorio, della città e del suo tessuto connettivo, nella cultura materiale e nell'organizzazione sociale degli abitanti. Pensiamo dunque sia possibile rendere il patrimonio (paesaggistico e culturale) maggiormente noto e fruibile nella consapevolezza che il turismo sia una risorsa fondamentale per permettere lo sviluppo socio-economico della popolazione locale. “Networking hubs for community” è la nostra strategia progettuale, che prevede la creazione di un Masterplan che abbraccia il Lago su tre livelli morfologicamente diversi (acqua, terra, sole) sui quali si insediano tre percorsi che uniscono punti di interesse paesaggistico storico e culturale meritevoli di una valorizzazione, che sia attraverso un intervento architettonico (hub) o non. Si crea così una rete all’interno della quale vari hubs sono interconnessi tra loro ed è proprio questa connessione a farli funzionare: pensando alla dinamica di un progetto di turismo comunitario isolato rispetto a quella di tanti hubs che funzionano in sinergia, è solo all’interno di quella rete di hubs che il locale può davvero incontrare il globale. KAYMANTA, che in lingua Kichwa significa DA QUI, è il primo hub pensato progettato e costruito insieme alla comunità locale: crediamo fortemente che il disegno partecipato sia uno strumento fondamentale per rafforzare un progetto dove la voce in campo non sia solo quella dell’architetto, ma dove tutti possano far parte di un coro unanime. Abbiamo quindi collaborato con la comunità di Cachiviru attraverso workshop comunitari volti a supportare la nostra idea progettuale: il progetto che abbiamo sviluppato riguarda la riqualificazione di uno spazio pubblico inteso prima di tutto come spazio d’incontro per la comunità (pensato e costruito con la comunità e gestito dalla stessa) e secondariamente per il turista, con l’obiettivo intrinseco di migliorare le condizioni di vita della popolazione attraverso la valorizzazione del suo patrimonio. Abbiamo quindi affrontato gli aspetti non solo architettonici ma anche socio-antropologici del rapporto “architetto – comunità”, ben diverso da quello “architetto – cliente” al quale siamo abituati a pensare in Europa. Ci siamo poi immerse nella realtà delle “mingas”, ovvero dell’autocostruzione partecipata in cui i componenti della comunità si aiutano tra loro (nel nostro caso abbiamo costruito il progetto congiuntamente alla comunità stessa) entrando in un meccanismo delicato dove non abbiamo svolto solo il ruolo di architetti ma anche di costruttrici, organizzatrici e dirigenti del cantiere, con un budget limitato e usando “lo que hay” (quello che c’è) per valorizzare “lo que hay”. Il progetto, iniziato a Maggio con i workshop comunitari, si è concluso con il 13 ottobre del 2015 con la sua inaugurazione.
Kaymanta desde aqui. Global strategies for local synergies
PETTENI, MARTA;GRIGIS, AGNESE;OGGIONI, CHIARA
2014/2015
Abstract
Our thesis stems from a strong interest in the role of architecture in developing countries and by a thirst for knowledge, combined with the desire to experiment in the field, that led us to travel overseas in Latin America, Ecuador. We questioned ourselves several times about how architecture can be a resource and a useful tool to improve living conditions in the countries with considerable cultural and environmental resources, but also with socio-economic degradation, coming to strongly believe that the potential of a place are inherent in the history of the area, the city and its connective tissue, in people who live there and in their culture. It is through the exploitation “de lo que hay con lo que hay” (literally: of what is there with what is there) that you can make the assets of any given settlement best known and usable, knowing that tourism is a key resource to enable the socio-economic development of the local population, if appropriately involved in the activation dynamics and in the management of tourism-related activities. Lo que hay in the area of Lago San Pablo is a rural landscape heritage deserving of enhancement but contaminated by the urban model of the city that causes a substantial loss of identity and beauty; it is a strong contamination of the Lake; it is a marked lack of road connections; it is the strong ancestral culture of the Kichwa indigenous people who inhabit the territory; and it is the lack of tourism that weighs on the economy of the inhabitants. Landscape beauty, Kichwa culture and the strong cohesion of the community are the resources and the main tools of our project: we listened to the Genius Loci considering every aspect of indigenous traditions rooted on daily life, and we involved the people themselves in the entire design process, from design to construction. "Networking hubs for communities" is the strategy we provide for the creation of a master plan that embraces the Lake on three morphologically different levels (agua, tierra y sol with reference to the dominant elements of the Kichwa culture) on which we settle three concentric paths that combine points of landscape interest worthy of a historical and cultural enhancement, whether through an architectural intervention or not, and for whom we studied the journey by foot, by bicycle or on horseback. The goal is not only to strengthen the connective tissue and to directly involve the community so that it can be the main beneficiary of the economic effects induced by tourism, but above all make it aware of the social and economic value of their environmental and cultural heritage, stimulating it to its conservation and enhancement. Analyzing the various points of interest, we have identified those simply exploitable through their placement in a guided tour and those that need a little architectural intervention (from info-point for tourists at Lechero de Pucarà in the tierra path, to the crafts exhibition center at Sombreria en Angla in the sol path). This creates a three-dimensional network in which various hubs are interconnected with each other and they work because it is within the network that the local can really meet the global: the tourist has the opportunity to enter into the everyday life of a community, participating to a small craft workshop in an exhibition center run by the community itself and buying the product made with his own hands, contributing to sustain the population and to the enhancement of its culture. KAYMANTA, that in Kichwa language means FROM HERE, is the first hub of this network that has been thought, designed and built with the local community, placed in Cachiviru, in the Parroquia of San Rafael de la Laguna (agua path). Lo que hay is not only the heritage, but mainly the people and its participation is the most important aspect! We believe that architecture must make use of a valuable resource: the community. The sum of individual actions, albeit of a certain quality, does not lead to the common good, while collective action is the real answer to the problem; this is why we strongly believe that participatory design is a key tool to strengthen a project where the voice is not only the one of the architect, but where all actors can be part of a unanimous chorus. We collaborated with the community of Cachiviru through participatory workshops aimed at supporting our project idea, facing not only architectural aspects but also the socio-anthropological "architect - community" relationship, quite different from the one of "architect - client" to which we are accustomed in Europe. The project we have developed is the requalification of a public space intended primarily as a meeting place for the community (designed and built with the community and run by the same) and secondly for the tourist. The other tool we used for developing the project is the auto-construction, that has always been considered a problem related to the growth of informal settlements, but seen in this case under a different lens: we speak about “Minga” that is a reality inherent to Kichwa culture, where the community members help each other in a participatory construction process; we speak about guided designed auto-construction, where the economic budget is lowered and the building hands increased. The project, started in May 2015 with participatory workshops, ended the 13th of October 2015 with its inauguration.| File | Dimensione | Formato | |
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https://hdl.handle.net/10589/121854