Indigenous Knowledge and Ecological Infrastructure: Regenerating the Amazon Forest

2013 – 2014

Faculty:

Ignacio Cardona, Carlos Olaizola, Instructors

Students:

26 Architecture Students

Institutions:

Universidad Simón Bolívar

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This architecture studio investigated how Indigenous knowledge and design could interact within fragile environments. Working with Turi Däjä, an Indigenous settlement near the Autana Tepui in the Venezuelan Amazon, students examined relationships among traditional practices, agriculture, water, education, architecture, and forest regeneration.

Responding to forest degradation associated with agricultural clearing, students designed biodegradable structures combining productive, educational, and ecological functions. The interventions supported cultivation, collected and redistributed water for forest regeneration, and provided spaces for children’s environmental education. Conceived as temporary devices, the structures would progressively disappear as vegetation reclaimed them, exploring architecture as transitional ecological infrastructure informed by Indigenous knowledge rather than a permanent imposition on the landscape.