ARCHITECT:
Emilio López arquitecto, Sebastián Calero + Daniel Moreno Flores, Natura Futura Arquitectura, Al Borde Arquitectos
PHOTO:
JAG Studio
YEAR:
2014 – open
LOCATION:
Ecuador
LINKS:
Neotradicionalismo: Identidad y memoria
Ecuador, like many other Latin American countries, has opted for the rejection of its own traditions, expropriating their own culture and adopting new ways of living, usually Eurocentric, generating biases applied on their own architecture.
The starting point of this new architectural task was a deep financial crisis, from a socio-economic point of view common in developing countries, that led architects to make interventions with a social conscience, based on the lack of economic resources, but with a thorough research towards the vernacular. Scarcity becomes an opportunity, and it revolves around Ecuadorian architects’ abundance of thought; from the recursion of austerity.
This new generation of emerging architects defends the responsibility of resources, through conscience and importance of collective work, strengthening group values over individual ones. In Ecuador, a new architectural culture has been established, one which proposes a new economy and takes advantage of local resources and techniques, appreciating natural and human tools. This is why these new projects are linked with taking the most advantage of their ancestors’ knowledge, their roots, and popular culture.
Text provided by JAG Studio
