Kawellucó Ruralization
Kawelluco is located in the south of Chile in the IX region of Araucanía, 15 minutes away from Pucón’s urban center. Kawelluco is a “ruralization” in terms of the fact that is not urbanizing the territory imposing the city-like way of living, fragmenting the territory creating plots. On the contrary, the design of the settlement starts from nature, respecting the organic order of the territory and combining it with low impact dwellings.
The project seeks to create a place where one can live in community, rather than a touristic resort.
An ecosystems engineer who determines the best location for the dwellings gives the base line of the project; 400ha are ruralized meanwhile 600ha are left in conservation state, preserving the natural forest.
The houses are built with the on-site wood, immersed in nature, without artificial fences, creating a free path amongst the dwellings. The paths, made of the natural compacted ground, are articulated based on 12 different interest spots (the river, the forest, etc.) allowing development without demystifying, always in contact with nature.
In order to colonize the territory 3 different types of dwellings are designed:
- Galoft: based on the encounter of the American loft and the traditional structure of the “galpón”. A very simple structure that designs the least possible to allow the inhabitant to complete the space. The galoft is complete when the encounter is produced through conversation.
- Conquest unit: This is the minimal unit to conquer the place. A place to live within the most basic conditions of dwelling. Its main asset is the low budget with which they are created.
- House-workshop: Many artists are interested in this kind of merged-with-nature dwelling, so the workshop-house is proposed as a place where one can live but also work in the artistic creative processes.
All this typologies collect the thesis of the Cala house, where the workforce and local knowledge of the constructive process is harnessed. Sustainable construction is carried out in terms of creating contemporary shapes in wood with the vernacular way of building.
The water is obtained from on-site streams, and in the beginning a system to collect, separate and recycle the garbage, plus solar panels for heating was proposed, but these technologies were too expensive for that time so it couldn’t be implemented.
