EL TERRITORIO SIEKOPAI, ECUADOR
The Siekopai, also known as the Many Colored People, are an indigenous community that has called the Amazon home for hundreds of years. They are a vibrant craftspeople who create multicolored garments and speak a unique language. Following a border dispute in the 1940s between Peru and Ecuador, the population was splintered, causing some of the community to flee deep into Ecuador and lose contact with their families. For nearly sixty years, the two groups remained separated until they were finally reunited. Distance between the two groups has made collaboration strenuous, and as these communities modernize, the ability to share and preserve knowledge becomes increasingly more difficult.
Pictured here is Robison Piaguaje during an interview in conducted during a visit to the Peruvian territory.
EL TERRITORIO ACHUAR, ECUADOR
Between the núngka (Earth) and the nayáim (sky) lies the runa, human civilization brought into reality in the collision between immaterial spirits and material realities of the Achuar cosmovision. The Achuar community live in connection with nature, cared for by Nunkui, the deity of cultivation. With generational knowledge of over a thousand different plant species, the Achuar employ their reciprocity with the Earth at various scales of craftmaking; between pottery, canoes, dwellings, and urban city organization.
The community’s mission is to maintain Achuar stewardship of their sustainable worldview in their various development projects. They are proud advocates of indigenous innovation and the dissemination of local knowledge that promotes cultural competency of an otherwise solitary nation. Their technologies directly seek new ethical pathways for sourcing all-natural biodiverse products that simultaneously improve economic and environmental standards for the families of the Achuar. Through participatory practices, the Achuar teach us that a rainforest can be enriched by actions as simple as propagating seeds, solidarity in the sowing of orchids.
RAPA NUI, CHILE, POLYNESIA
Flung far into the pacific waters lies Rapa Nui, one of the planet’s most remote habited islands. What was once considered an anomalous society infamous for its monumental volcanic statues, speaks many truths about the human condition; one that unwinds with deeper archaeological exploration and the relearning of a nearly forgotten heritage. While the community in Hanga Roa has been at risk for nearly two centuries as a result of colonization and environmental degration, it thrives today through an implementation of art and language; speaking volumes to the resilience of this contemporary polynesian culture.
El ALTO, BOLIVIA
It is said that at the dawn of the Incan empire, the conquerers arrived at the altiplano following legends of a lost civilization, what we now know as the culture of the Tiwanaku. Taken by their precision stone carving, preserved almost as it was at the time of its abandonment thanks to uniquely frigid and dry climactic conditions, the Incan pressed forward on a quest to refine the engineering marvel - laying stonework across a continent.
GUANAJUATO MEXICO
Overtop the now defunct mine that at its peak of production was exporting two-thirds of the world's silver, the capital city of Guanajuato has nestled into the forgotten veins. With bits of sandstone and repurposed remnants of colonial Spanish baroque architecture, tenants constructed a subterranean city, a building process that has aggregated over centuries.
SINTRA, PORTUGAL
While much of Europe was riddled by war and plague in the 20th century, Portugal remained focused on craft and articulating beauty from within their seafaring culture. Constructions in the historic city of Sintra such as the Vila Sasseti, Pena Palace, Palácio de Monserrate and Moorish Castle preserved by Parques de Sintra stand as a testament to the value of heritage told through vernacular architecture.
REYKJAVIK, ICELAND
Accretic architecture is an amorphous form of vernacular architecture that shifts shape and form depending on function, season, and program. The discourse surrounding this architectural temporality often unveils the academic bias against nomadic communities painting them as simple, unsophisticated, and unmodern - due specifically as a result of the decaying nature of biological or temporary architecture that disappears in the archaeological record. In the circumpolar north, we observe simple gestures such as planks of driftwood frozen in ice that melt, freeze, and effectively assemble in unpredictable patterns of dwelling depending on climatic conditions along with seasonal hunting routes.