It is a collaborative and educational platform co-created between Cazú Zegers and the architects Rodrigo Sheward and Martín del Solar who make up Grupo Talca. This initiative responds to generating instances of conceptualization and architectural construction to articulate thresholds in the territory together with groups of students and volunteers. This process considers integrating community work with local processes and materials.
Epic poem written by a group from the School of Architecture of the Catholic University of Valparaíso, turned into a vision and philosophy. Two years after the so-called first Travesía of 1965, various texts, annotations, poems, letters from the first American chroniclers, blanks, clippings and drawings and editing work were carried out on the material to give shape to a book titled Amereida, without any author's signature, unnumbered pages and no capital letters, published in 1967. This writing has become a vision of Latin America for the world, which in its beginnings led by the poet Godofredo Iommi and the architect Alberto Cruz in Chile, called on the inhabitants of America not to be imitators, but to create a truly Latin American culture.
Broad concept typical of indigenous cultures, which refers to a lifestyle different from the Western one, where spirituality, connection with nature, respect for elders, the use of traditional medicine, the application of economies of scale , among others, seek well-being. Good Living seeks to achieve a balance between the fundamental needs of humanity and the resources available to satisfy them (De la Cuadra, 2015).
For the purposes of ethnoarchitecture and ethnoengineering, Beneficiary group refers to those people for whom the developed project is intended, being indigenous peoples and/or ethnic groups or surrounding communities. (Zegers, 2021)
(typology) "Casa Taller" is a typology that Cazú Zegers developed in conjunction with the ruralization of Kawelluco in the nineties and beginning of the millennium. People from various trades and professions came to live there, many of them artists. The Workshop Houses are an architectural proposal that intends the program and its interior to provide the artist with an optimal work space.
It is the modification and adaptation of services to varied cultural practices. (Johannsen & Lünstedt, 2015). Consider the elements of a culture (economy, society, traditions, religion, language, colors, among many others) when generating any project that affects it. The elements themselves vary throughout each culture, so cultural adaptation is a priority process for the process of projects with ethnoengineering.
Discipline that values traditional indigenous knowledge as a source of inspiration for carrying out 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.
Galoft (Galpón+Loft): (typology) The word "Galpón" can find its origin in the Mexican macro language Nahuatl to refer to "Calpulli" = Family clan or communal house. The word "Loft" has a North American origin to describe large spaces with few divisions.
Current of thought and concept coined by Kenneth White that describes the poetics of territories as creators of culture (Institut Geopoetique, 1979).
It is a methodology devised by Cazú Zegers at the beginning of her career to develop an architectural project. Under the eaves of a poetic philosophy and together with his Amereida heritage, Zegers proposes a thought process for her architecture. The gesture of the project appears thanks to the observation of the territory and is then transferred to paper. From the drawing of the gesture, the figure of the project is sought in a process where the gesture is dematerialized. Finally the figure will lead to the form of the architectural project. Gesture, figure, form proposes developmental steps of creating a feminine architecture.
Concept developed by Cazú Zegers to refer to an “astral being” that lives in an intermediate state between two forces, that of the Apollonian heaven of pure ideas, the Christic rites that come with the conqueror and that of the Dionysian earth with its rites of the land and the understanding that everything in it has a being and that we cannot think of ourselves as separate from it, corresponding to the original indigenous world of this territory. The being that arises from this mixture of blood and knowledge is what in the mid-19th century thinkers from the colony agreed to name as Latin, as a way of incorporating all the inhabitants of America (Enrique Ayala Mora UASB 2020).
“Interculturality points towards the construction of societies that assume differences as constitutive of democracy and are capable of building new, truly egalitarian relationships between different sociocultural groups, which means empowering those who, historically, were considered inferior.” (Ferrao, 2010).
The United Nations environmental program defines indigenous knowledge as “the knowledge that an indigenous (local) community accumulates over time, living in a certain environment. This definition encompasses all forms of knowledge—technologies, skills, practices, and beliefs—that allow the community to achieve a stable standard of living in its environment. There are a series of terms that are used interchangeably to refer to the concept of indigenous knowledge, including traditional knowledge, indigenous technical knowledge, local knowledge and indigenous knowledge system” (Hess, J & Storbel, J, 2013).
(Kawellu –horse / co–water: Water for horse). Offgrid ruralization project near the city of Pucón designed by Cazú Zegers in the 1990s. Kawelluco takes its name from the Mapuche tradition of naming and founding a place that is linked to identifying an attribute of nature that spoke of its destination. In this case, the story goes that the lonco of a new community went with other loncos talking about this way of naming, they said that to found a new place nature had to speak. At that moment an impressive white horse came out of a stream, so they named that community Kawelluco, which means watering hole or water for horses. Kawello = Horse Co = Water. 600 hectares of Valdivian forest in a good state of conservation were allocated to a private natural park for the community. Car paths were minimized, the sites were grouped into fields and their boundaries were marked with paths. These were connected to a network of trails structuring the place, to be explored on foot, on horseback or by bicycle. The trails were organized based on strategic points of enormous scenic beauty, which allows to this day to tour the place immersed in the pristine and wild nature of the place.
Architectural proposal by the Chilean architect Cazú Zegers that seeks to carry out minimal interventions, establishing a balanced link with nature, creating a landscape that does not demystify the territory, but on the contrary, enhances it. In this approach, the precarious, far from being poor, becomes virtuous. It is characterized by being an artistic posture from Latin America to the world. (Zegers, 2021).
“Design movement to reconstruct an understanding of indigenous philosophy and vernacular architecture that generates sustainable and climate-resilient infrastructure.” (Watson, 2020).
It is a category of architecture within the typologies created by Cazú Zegers. This involves a different design and construction strategy and methodology. Our mission for this category is to democratize architecture projects with the same quality and detail but with a lightweight solution. Therefore, LEVE manages to offer innovation in these solutions.
It is a methodology created by Cazú Zegers to refer to the position in the territory capable of giving the observer a figure of the landscape. The rhombus figure is capable of displaying space, the center of which is defined by the observer, who appears in the territory for analysis and drawing of the place. Zeger's architecture was born from the perception of including observation as an initial element of the architectural process. It is here that it is manifested that the “where” one is situated in the territory, using observation as a tool of abstraction, is how the first gesture of the architectural work is born.
The concept of ruralization can be traced back to medieval times in relation to the use of urbanizing practices in the countryside. Although this is not a concept created by Cazú Zegers, the architect has developed an architectural methodology within ruralization, creating spaces that respect balanced development between the natural environment and human intervention. With this execution it is possible to maintain the natural attributes of the territory. It differs from urbanization, which is defined as the action and effect of the set of buildings erected to build and organize a formerly rural land. Ruralization seeks to preserve the rural qualities and the native landscape of the place, generating small interventions so that human beings can inhabit a place in a respectful manner.
Process in which a link is generated between the technical team and the beneficiaries of the project to learn and train in the knowledge of the traditions and culture of the corresponding indigenous people. (Zegers, 2021).
Territorial Signs: (verb: sign the territory) Territorial signs are a concept created by Cazú Zegers to refer to places created with minimal architectural operations capable of opening the territory to new narratives, in order to create new development models that value the territory and its communities poetically inhabiting it.
The concept as such and understood from the point of view of development was applied in the West in 1987 in the Brundtland Report. “It refers to the search for social and economic progress that ensures human beings a healthy and productive life, but that does not compromise the ability of future generations to satisfy their own needs.” Aware of natural resources, sustainability “seeks social development that contributes to improving the quality of life, health, education and culture of all people.” World organizations such as the UN define sustainable actions under scope objectives over a period of time. “These objectives are interrelated with each other. The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) have a global vision and range from the search for the elimination of poverty, inequalities, quality education, avoiding environmental degradation and establishing paths that lead to a more prosperous world, with peace and justice. Sustainability contemplates all human processes (social, educational, cultural, economic, etc.) that, in an environment of equity and globality, seek the development and equitable well-being of people while caring for the environment.” (Reyna,BBVA, 2021) Concept understood as that “that can be supported or defended with reasons.” A sustainable or sustainable development seeks an adequate and correct use of current resources without compromising them for future generations. This means that sustainable processes preserve, protect and conserve current and future natural resources. The American ecological economist, Herman Daly, defined principles of this concept: (1) Renewable resources should not be used at a rate greater than their generation. (2) Polluting substances may not be produced at a rate greater than they can be recycled, neutralized or absorbed by the environment. (3) No non-renewable resource should be used at a faster rate than necessary to replace it with a renewable resource used in a sustainable manner. (Reyna,BBVA, 2021).
Methodological exercise that begins the initial architectural process of Cazú Zegers by opening to the gesture, figure and form of her project. Similar to the figure-form gesture methodology, this sound process helps to begin an exploration and search for the architectural material. "Bringing the intangible to the tangible. The sound of a letter, such as K, T and Y, unfold in space and come to life as tactile and sensory habitats." (Zegers, 2022)
Territorial Signs: (verb: sign the territory) Territorial signs are a concept created by Cazú Zegers to refer to places created with minimal architectural operations capable of opening the territory to new narratives, in order to create new development models that value the territory and its communities poetically inhabiting it.
(typology) Understood today as a “tiny-cabin” or “tiny-house” by Cazú Zegers. This is characterized by being the minimum unit necessary to inhabit a territory, designed from a unique gesture that dialogues and builds tension with the surrounding landscape.
The Umbrales or thresholds, also considered territorial signs, are located in formats of small squares or viewpoints created collaboratively. These spaces are formed thanks to few architectural operations but are capable of opening the landscape to new destinations. The thresholds bring into place or make visible the other elements of the territory, generating spaces of connection and contemplation between the visitor and the surrounding landscape. The existing thresholds, such as Mirador Patachoi in southern Chile or Umbral Plazoleta Negra located in Santiago, have been built under the Andes Workshop educational platform together with groups of volunteers, students and members of the respective community.
It refers to that own, native architecture, which is born from an adaptation to the environment, creating a symbiotic relationship with it. “There is a way of building whose genesis is the moment in which man creates his habitat, it does not respond to styles, it does not represent eras, it does not need architects, those who inhabit them are in charge of modeling them, it has been there, witness of the culture of men: vernacular architecture” (Tillería, 2010: 12).