Cazú Zegers has developed a work methodology that leads her to become an expert in the practices of Ethnoarchitecture and Ethnoengineering.
After years of practice with local communities, use of raw materials and ancestral techniques of the territory where her work is inserted, Cazú Zegers has developed a work methodology that leads her to become an expert in the practices of Ethnoarchitecture; and Ethnoengineering, leading projects for global organizations. Both disciplines value traditional indigenous knowledge as a source of inspiration for carrying out sustainable construction and design practices with their natural and cultural environment. They also include a participatory methodology to address infrastructure projects and their implementation processes to the cultural particularities of indigenous peoples. With this, the Cazú Zegers Studio is today one of the few in Latin America specialized in this area, generating various projects such as: Ruka Contemporánea (2014), Ruta Pehuenche (2015), Casas Maternas (Bolivia, 2020), Ethnotourism Ruta del Cóndor (2020) and the Normative Research of Ethnoengineering in Infrastructure Projects (2021), among others. At the end of 2022, a team led by Zegers and commissioned by the Inter-American Bank of Development (IDB), created an Ethnoengineering Guideline aimed at promoting participatory mechanisms, construction methods and guidelines for sustainable development of indigenous peoples and other ethnic groups in Latin America and the Caribbean. These guidelines, available to professionals, governments and other public organizations, addresses the development of road, educational, tourism or health projects and is now available for download and use completely free of charge.
Ethnoarchitecture
Ethnoarchitecture is a methodology specific to architecture that values indigenous vernacular knowledge for the implementation of sustainable construction and design practices with its natural and cultural environment. It includes a participatory methodology to address infrastructure projects and their implementation processes to the cultural particularities of the indigenous peoples or other ethnic groups of the territory.
Ethnoengineering
Discipline that values traditional indigenous knowledge as a source of inspiration for the realization of environmentally sustainable engineering practices (Hess & Storbel, 2013). It includes a participatory methodology to address infrastructure projects and their implementation processes to the cultural particularities of the indigenous peoples or beneficiary ethnic groups.
