The Institute for Resilient Environmental and Energy Systems’ Latin American Sustainability Initiative, in collaboration with the Christopher C. Gibbs College of Architecture’s Haskell and Irene Lemon Construction Science Division, hosted a research and service exchange program involving students and faculty from the Universidad Nacional del Altiplano, Puno (UNAP), Peru. The program brought together a multidiscipline team to jointly research, design and construct a model house for the rural communities that inhabit the extreme environment of Puno, Peru.
Victor Maqque, managing director of LASI and affiliate faculty in the Department of History, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences, and Ben Bigelow, an associate professor in the Haskell and Irene Lemon Construction Science Division, co-lead the project titled, “Knowledge and Cultural Exchange Through the Built Environment: Inti Wasi Sustainable and Affordable Cold Climate Housing.” The Inti Wasi, or “Sun House” in the Quechua language, project combines indigenous historical knowledge, locally accessible materials and state-of-the-art technologies in housing design to build a model house that addresses key environmental and health-related challenges of societies living in the extreme environment of the high Andean region of Puno, located at 12,000 feet above sea level. OU and UNAP students worked during the spring 2023 semester in the research and design of several options of materials, design and user preferences. Rene Peralta, a professor in the Gibbs College of Architecture, directed a course titled “High Altitude Housing Design” that laid the foundation for the project and included the online participation of UNAP students.
The Gibbs College of Architecture and LASI hosted eight students and one faculty member from UNAP from September 16-24 to assess and further advance the Inti Wasi design. The UNAP team discussed the Inti Wasi design with students, faculty and key experts in and around OU. They also worked in collaborative research and design studio settings, experimented with flexible wall prototypes, learned about OU’s American School of Design and Practice, and participated in several related classes including a “History of Latin America” with Raphael Folsom, a professor of history in the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences.
Delfina Alata, an anthropology student on the UNAP team, talking in the Quechua language, said, “This was a significant experience that allowed us to integrate knowledge and practice on housing and community building from our rural villages in the Peruvian highlands with new knowledge being discovered at UNAP and OU.”
Guided by their OU colleagues, the UNAP students and faculty toured the diverse house typologies and the build environment around Norman and Oklahoma City, experienced campus life, met with the OU Peruvian Student Association (PESA) and engaged in learning activities in and around OKC. During a closing ceremony where the guests received certificates of recognition, Hans Butzer, dean of the Gibbs College of Architecture, referred to this program as a symbolic convergence of two universities that strive to respond to the fundamental challenges of their respective societies and share a long, similar history of Indigenous heritage, challenging landscapes and wonderful lakes such as Texoma and Titicaca.
Learn more about the U.S. Department of State’s 100,000 Strong Partners of the Americas Innovation Fund, which funds this project.
