Divining Providencia • Plan ZIMM-S
Divining Providencia • Plan ZIMM-S
CLIENT: Architects Roger Sherman and Santiago Del Hierro
PARTNERS: PUCE University, Ecuador & CityLAB UCLA, USA
SUPPORTERS: Gensler Architecture
LOCATION: Puerto Providencia, Ecuador
DATE: 2012 - 2014
Project ZIMM-S is a sustainable development project in collaboration with architects, Roger Sherman (co-director of CityLAB UCLA), Santiago del Hierro (PUCE university, Ecuador) and the provincial government of Sucumbios, Ecuador. The master plan is to create an urban installation of the institutions, industries, and products that must be invented to unlock the sustainable and profitable potential of the rainforest to stave off its deforestation. More specifically, it will draw upon Ecuador's biodiversity as a means of generating a rich “craft economy” which renewably synthesizes the Amazon’s unique trove of natural resources with the unique skills of its workforce.
Working at the site of a soon-to-be constructed inland port at Providencia, in the province of Sucumbios, the team leveraged the opportunities presented by the planned through-put of resources there toward the creation of a new model of transshipment zone, one which combines the economic vitality, economy of scale and expediency of the global free trade zone with the local benefits and social justice of fair trade.
You can read more about the project here.
Story
TOUCH was responsible for laying out the strategic pilot program to assist the indigenous cooperatives and micro-enterprises at the Yasuni National Park.
Our program’s aim was to accelerate community growth and sustainable development by applying our Creative Change Method to help the cooperatives improve their crafts and enter into the international market.
Urban by Nature Exhibition
Gensler created an installation that was show at La Biennale di Venezia (15th International Architecture Exhibition) and the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam.
You can read more about it here.
Next Steps
Setting up training centers and bringing our team of experts to vocationally train artisans so as to integrate them into the economic value chain and safeguard the dwindling crafts of the Indigenous Yasuni people of the Ecuadorian Amazon Basin.
