DesignBuild Studio Chamanga/ Ecuador 2017/2018

First planning and envisioning of the Centre was done by the Center for Public Interest Design (CPID) at Portland State University (PSU) under the lead of Sergio Palleroni, and the Department of Socio- Cultural Environmental Studies at the University of Tokyo in Spring of 2017. Back then the voices of the community were already considered. The work of these two teams were locally represented in Chamanga by Atarraya, an Ecuadorian public interest design by Atarraya, an Ecuadorian public interest design collaborative that worked to integrate the community in the design and its construction. The community organisation was the heart of this effort, the Chamangueñan Cultural Collective Opción Más became the other leg in the tripod and became indispensable in making the logistics needed to realise a DesignBuild Project in the complexities of a post-earthquake situation.

In September 2017, the first phase was built by PSU with the help of the community and the structural engineers from the University of Tokyo Professors Jun Sato and Mika Araki.

In October 2017, the University of Applied Sciences München who accompanied the development process of phase I since August, joined the effort. An interdisciplinary team of architecture and engineering students worked on further developments of the building.

In February and March 2018 the students flew to Equador to execute the project. This building lays special emphasis on applying local construction materials, such as bamboo and local hand harvested woods. They are a testament to the richness of Chamanga’s ecological system.