El diseño centrado en las personas como herramienta para una nueva arquitectura en Susudel

Abstract

In terms of sustainability, both traditional-vernacular and contemporary architecture (which is often imported and industrialized), have their benefits and drawbacks. However, vernacular architecture has a series of environmental, social, cultural and economic qualities gained over time that are often overlooked when designing and building new elements, due to various reasons. The constant desire to own new and improved goods instead of the obsolete and primitive designs of the past seems to be increasingly the predominant criterion in the urban sphere, which is shifted and replicated without further reflections in the rural context. This research suggests rethinking the traditional-vernacular architecture as a model for contemporary sustainability, and considers essential the construction of certain guidelines or paths for the conception of a contemporary architecture which provides an alternative way of building, more committed to the territory and which has the ability to be adapted to the real needs of the people who inhabit it in terms of culture, identity, economy, welfare and environment. To do this, a participatory process was proposed in Susudel, a town of approximately 1200 inhabitants 65 kilometers south of the city of Cuenca, Ecuador, which has great potential to evolve positively and sustainably in the future. This means doing so as part of a logical and natural evolution of the local building techniques, learning from ancient wisdom, and simultaneously implementing -in a conscious way- contemporary knowledge developed both inside and outside the community.