El espacio intermedio como determinante en la tipología de la vivienda rural Andina del sur del Ecuador

Abstract

The architectural analysis of rural typologies contributes to the conservation of built heritage and facilitates the identification of design guidelines to reduce the impact of contemporary construction in these territories. In the rural areas of Global South, the current architectural production is often decontextualized, also the housing typologies considered traditional come from a process of cultural stratification of ancient roots, which can resemble the contemporary one. For this reason, the individuation of the spatial determinants that have allowed the adaptation of the dwellings to the context is fundamental for its possible reinterpretation in the contemporary project. The study proposes the recognition of the persistence that determine the typology of traditional rural housing in the province of Loja in Ecuador. Therefore, it is hypothesized that there is a system of mediating spaces that provides the adaptation of the building to the environment, representing a constant in the spatiality of the rural house to the equatorial latitude. The applied methodology of research-by-design allows collecting useful data for theoretical speculation through the survey, redrawing and analysis of thirty-five dwellings in the Province, investigating the relationships with the context, between the elements that compose the typologies and with the material and constructive detail, to finally delimit the spaces of mediation. The result of the study presented in this article proposes the characterization of the intermediate space in rural housing in southern Ecuador, through the recognition of the architectural elements that compose it. This reading allows to provide an analysis of the same according to the aspects of relation with the collectivity, with the environment and the economic practices.