We can actually live all our life in a forest, with food, fabric and shelter taken care of, avoiding the urban claptrap. Tamandua Rain Forest Research Station in Peru tells us how. By Sathya Prakash Varanashi
Let us imagine we were to be living deep inside a tropical primary rain forest. There is no real local vernacular style yet, so how do we proceed to design? We need to freshly create a local architecture from the materials offered by the context. That’s what we get to see at the Tamandua Rain Forest Research Station inside the Amazon forest, next to Las Pedras River in Peru.
It could be a large raised floor with wooden planks open all around to let light and air filter in from everywhere. The height of platform and railing would discourage crawling reptiles, rodents and such others from entering. Dealing with hot humid air is simplified by high roof with total void below roof, to allow hot air to move across the roof bottom, rather than let it move downwards from the roof. Room divisions are done with low partitions, just to provide visual privacy.
How to build
There is no electricity, telephone or internet connectivity. How do we build? We need to discover ways of constructing with human skills and basic tools that are traditionally available. The jungle is replete with construction timber for structural members, veins to get rope from them and tall grass ideal for weaving for roofing purposes.
Make the roof steep to ensure faster flow of rain water and greater structural stability.
Everything from the toilet gets soaked into the soil below. If we run out of cooking gas, firewood is around aplenty, which can also provide hot water for bathing, if needed. Food without the fancy looks and urban ingredients is essential and healthy.
Essential supplies to run the Tamandua Research Station need to come from a shanty settlement an hour away by boat. The typical daily wastes too have to be taken back, not to litter the pristine nature.
The station is not for recreation, but for research and exploring nature, as such it is austere and frugal. Yet, it connotes the possibility that we can actually live so all our life, with food, fabric and shelter taken care of. If so, why have we forgotten the pleasures of simple living and the simple pleasures of living, caught up on the trap of unsustainable lifestyle?
Until a few years ago, there was no supplied electricity, but now there are a few solar photovoltaic panels that give a little quantity of power before it gets totally dark, when one relies on candles. Until a few years ago, there was no Trans Amazonian Highway connectivity, so travel took day and night across boats, road and walking.
It appears, as we move into the present and the future, we miss out on experiencing the past. Soon, we forget it and so too about designing with nature.
The architecture at Tamandua station is the real sustainable architecture. It is born out of Mother Earth and when it reaches its end, it will return to Mother Earth. If we can keep the jungle, the jungle will keep us. Architecture without carbon footprint.
(The author is an architect working on eco-friendly designs and can be contacted at [email protected])
Source: Read Full Article