Transitioning from Reconstruction to New Urban Sites
Our class of 2017-18 returned to Chamanga to continue the post-earthquake reconstruction workshop that our previous class began last year in the coastal town of San José de Chamanga where an estimated 60% of homes were damaged after two consecutive major earthquakes in 2016. While the previous workshop, titled Reconstructing Chamanga, focused on revitalizing deteriorated public spaces, this year the brief shifted its focus to Transitioning from Reconstruction to New Urban Sites, which involved tracking the evolution of the five previous sites of intervention, assessing the perception of the community and local government of the ongoing reconstruction process, proposals for the prioritization of certain spaces and voids, and a small-scale physical intervention. Directed by codirector Carmen Mendoza Arroyo, the workshop was a collaboration with the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Ecuador (PUCE), Sergio Palleroni of Portland University, and students from RMIT’s MoDDD program, within which our field trip is offered as an elective.