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ALE EIN AIKÜLE - Ethnic Museum for the Wayuu Community

Part 2 Project 2011
Maria Margarita Polania Quintero
Natalia Del Pilar Correal AviláN
Monica Buitrago Avila
Pilot University of Colombia Bogota | Colombia
With the project we propose ethno space, the creation of places for the conservation and development of the Wayuu culture. It is an Ethno-museum which articulates their ancestral knowhow, their world vision and their communication with the surroundings. The complex of buildings and terraces, and excavated spaces which configures the project has a permanent character. It is an institution in the benefit of the community and their cultural development and a showcase of their cultural attributes for the public in general.

It is the goal of the architectural proposal to empower their ethno-culture, as active spatial instrument of education, authentic and collective. One central idea is to preserve the value of their cults, language, and their ethnics as a whole.

Based on the Rancheria pattern, in an area of 3 hectares with capacity to house about 500 people between locals and visitors, the project adapts to and gently transforms the topography and geographical features. It follows the apparently disordered and loose disposition of volumes proper to the Wayuu people. The disposition of volumes, open spaces and views, however, is carefully studied in its relationship to the sea and immediate surroundings. The system of volumes and spaces alternates wide open spaces, thresholds of transitional shady nature and excavated spaces in consideration of winds and the sun path, using textile principles and techniques for the buildings envelope.
The spaces of the ethno-museum are characterized by an in-between quality, of private and public, open and enclosed. They propose and represent a promenade across the Wayuu world, reinterpreting their three world dimensions: the underworld, the earth and the sky. It pays careful attention to phenomenological aspect of the dwellers’ experience. It almost simulates the places described in the Wayuu mythology not only to bring evidence, but also to perceive and feel.

One final look at the project evidences that its landscaping establishes a counterpoint with the site with its system of terraces and lookout points, a dialogue which is neither imposition nor imitation. Another feature is the sensible use of local materials and techniques, yet pushing the envelope of the vernacular.

Maria Margarita Polania Quintero
Natalia Del Pilar Correal AviláN
Monica Buitrago Avila

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2011
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