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Abya Yala: The Amazonian Organism, The Maniwa Canal & The Ampó Settlement

Part 2 Project 2020
Luis Rojas Paipilla
University of Greenwich | UK
Abya Yala is the original name for The Americas continent, representing the
Indigenous preservation of their cultures while remaining in connection with nature. This project speculates about the future of indigenous humans and their position within the Amazon rainforest (Maniwa), proposing a network of settlements integrating architecture and nature to reorientate Western ideologies.

Through engagement with indigenous epistemologies, the project investigates the ritual of Ayawáskha, a hallucinogenic ‘brew’ consumed to better experience and understand the Amazonian ecology, humanity’s role within it, and to fully enmesh the participant within Maniwa.

First, the Amazonian Organism is acknowledged as an entity with the same legal rights as human beings. The Maniwa is proposed as a scientific and medicinal research centre for the flora, fauna and traditional medicines of the forest.
Second, the Ampó settlement’s proposed facilities are for the Ancient Medicinal Praxis Organisation, expanding on the opportunities that Ayawáskha offers to contemporary science.
Third, the Malokas are designed to reinterpret the typology of the indigenous hut and reconstruct the ritual experience as a journey through space, encouraging a recalibration of values – through connection with the universe, the natural and ethereal worlds, healing wounds from capitalism, colonialism and the ongoing destruction of the Maniwa.

Luis Rojas Paipilla

Tutor(s)
David Hemingway
Jake Moulson
2020
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