As part of the Terra 2022 virtual lead-up events, organizations from around the world are carrying out virtual events that present research and/or projects of interest. In this context, the World Heritage City Project (CPM) of the University of Cuenca will present 2 projects: The first shows the restoration proposal for a property with heritage value in the city of Azogues, Ecuador. The second demonstrates the participatory process (co-creation) carried out in a little rural community near the city of Cuenca, Susudel.

[LECTURE 1] THE FIFTH SAN JOSÉ DE AZOGUES
DATE: Thursday, February 17
TIME: 11:00 - 12:30 (Ecuadorian time)
SPEAKERS: Fausto Cardoso - Alicia Tenze - Catalina Rodas

The presentation refers to an urban peripheral property, built at the beginning of the last century. Thanks to the strengthening of certain economies that were sustained by the export of the toquilla straw hat (Panama Hat), new visions and new aspirations were consolidated of a nascent bourgeoisie, whose impetus was also expressed in architecture.

Quinta San José de Azogues, located on the outskirts of Azogues -- a small city of slow growth -- quickly became part of a benchmark model of life. In its construction, despite the social aspirations of its owners, local materials, technologies, and knowledge were used where the land is the protagonist. The materialization of the country house took place in stages accompanied by the prosperity of its owners.

From the second half of the 20th century, the city changed and included this property in its urban expansion. With the death of its owners, the beautiful building headed towards obsolescence and abandonment.

In 2020 and 2021, a consulting team from the University of Cuenca developed a restoration project in which its recovery was co-designed with the community, with the support of participatory methodologies in all stages of work. The exhibition shows the details and development of this process, which is innovative in the participatory recovery of built heritage.

[LECTURE 2] SUSUDEL'S PATH TOWARDS COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT BASED ON ITS HERITAGE.
DATE: Thursday, February 24
TIME: 11:00 - 12:30 (Ecuadorian time)
SPEAKERS: Fausto Cardoso - Alicia Tenze - Gabriela Barsall

In 2011, a group of students and professors from the University of Cuenca visited Susudel, a small town of 800 people with a beautiful adobe chapel and a rustic hacienda house, which is the origin of the settlement.

From this initiative, a work model was organized that was quickly articulated with fresh ideas of preventive conservation, which materialized in mobilizing collective initiatives that have allowed the recovery of dozens of houses and other assets of vernacular architecture both in Susudel and in the region, South of the equator.

The participation of the communities in these processes has been vital. The learning and exchanges have been mutual and have allowed for the execution of increasingly ambitious and better structured projects, through participatory and co-creation processes, which have inspired other initiatives at the level of complex sites such as Cuenca, which is humanity’s heritage.

The Susudel experience triggered an important series of initiatives in the community itself, with research in various fields (colored earth, diversification of bricks, recovery of the cemetery, a project for the Casa Hacienda, workshops for children, restoration and social activation of spaces patrimonial).

With the Pandemic came new challenges and new opportunities. The distancing caused the need to find new forms of interrelation and use of public space, the re-thinking of new social initiatives that strengthen entrepreneurship, social life, research and love for earthen architecture. The presentation will refer to these special processes of co-creation between the University and the Community.
 

Click here for more information on the Terra 2022 Virtual Lead-Up Events Series.

Click here for more information on Terra 2022 World Congress on Earthen Architectural Heritage.