Transformations of Shuar Architectures and Agroecologies

Emerging visions of the pre-Colonial Western Hemisphere that diverge from hegemonic narratives offer important lessons on urban ecology that can contribute to reimagine the city of the future, as designers seek for principles that may guide contemporary urban (design) culture towards re-establishing a cyclical and renewable relationship with the environment. 

Join this conversation with architect, designer, planner and scholar from Quito, Ecuador, Ana María Durán Calisto; María Clara Sharupi Jua, a leader and expert in managing social, cultural, and educational projects, with an emphasis on human rights and interculturality, and with architectural designer and artist hailing from Nairobi, Kenya, Brent Wafula. 

Prompting this conversation is the rich cultural heritage of Amazonian First Nations, whose sophisticated systems of inhabitation are being dismantled in the name of development and by systems of national planning which often fail to acknowledge their value and existence.

The dialogue will also dissect the regional agroecological constellations of their deep past as depicted by drawings done by architecture students Ana Maria has taught and reinterpreted through weaving and other forms of craftwork by Amazonian First Nations like the Waorani.

At the same time, this discussion will attempt to unpack the ways in which a people with such deep cultural links reconcile their heritage in contemporary urban set ups removed so far from home citing the Ecuadorian community in New Haven, Connecticut.

Their rich past can fertilize current imaginaries of the urban and what it means to be urban in a tropical rainforest and what it means to be traditional in a concrete jungle.