Museo Vivo Interactivo Yatiyawi
The “Museo Vivo Interactivo Yatiyawi” (Interactive Living Museum “Yatiyawi”) is designed to house exhibitions and workshops, providing new spaces for the El Getsemaní foundation, an organization that works with children and adolescents in the periurban neighborhood of Tilata. This neighborhood is part of the outskirts of the La Paz-El Alto metropolitan area, at an altitude of approximately 3920 meters above sea level. The urban sprawl that is transforming the landscape of Tilata can also be described in material terms, as earthen buildings, witnesses of a recent rural past, are rapidly being replaced by concrete and brick constructions. It is in this context that the museum seeks to make a difference with the reintroduction of rammed earth as the main construction technique, standing out from its surroundings as a space where the materialities of earth and wood are part of the didactic agenda to which the museum and the foundation that hosts it are attached. With a minimal budget, the museum was built with approximately 30.000 dollars, with the premise of offering adequate spaces of simple construction, using materials with a low carbon footprint and employing local labor force. This project represents the largest contemporary work of rammed earth in Bolivia.
The museum's collection is mainly composed of the legacy of the extinct Yatiyawi Foundation, an organization that worked since the 1990s in Tilata, producing educational material for both children and adults. “Yatiyawi” means ‘Teaching’ in the indigenous Aymara language spoken in the region.
Each space has its own characteristics in terms of textures and colors, a common factor being the use of earth. The tour of the museum begins within the rooms of the existing “Casa Barbara”, which have been renovated and adapted internally, applying a new earthen plaster over the existing adobe walls. The tour continues through a smaller space, which is characterized by a light earthen plaster, made with gray earth that was brought from the nearby Achocalla valley, located approximately 10 km from the site. Finally, the tour enters the new block, this space is built entirely with rammed earth walls and has a gable roof composed of exposed timber trusses. Light enters from above through polycarbonate sheets arranged on both sides of the ridge. This space has two exits that mark a central axis that crosses the space longitudinally. The north exit opens onto a patio where two Kiswaras (Buddleja coriacea Remy), native trees of the Andean highlands, were preserved.
