Sustainable Communities
Faculty of Industrial Design, Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú [PUCP]
Master Program Integral Studies, Campus Waiblingen SAdBK Germany
PUCP & SAdBK_Totora Project
The Reed Age: Uros and the lacustrine life
Travel adventure stories and the existence of mythical sites and artefacts in South America have fed the imagination of children and adults in Europe and the rest of the world thanks to the fantastic books of the Norwegian Thor Heyerdahl. These books may have been stored in libraries but their content remains alive in those who dreamed about building a boat made of reeds that would be capable of crossing oceans.
This is not part of a fantastic story, but it is real and we called it Totora in Peru.
PUCP & SAdBK_Totora Project_Puno
With these ideas in mind, Prof. George Teodorescu, Architect by profession, leader of the Master Program Integral Studies of the Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design in Germany and founder of the International Institute for Integral Innovation (4i), decided to start his own adventure: discovering the magic of Totora.
In 2009 the Totora Project began, as the third of a program named “Innovation is Hope”, which is part of the Master of Integral Studies that addresses problems in the emerging economies, creating new approaches for solving the local problems specifically with regional resources and craftsmen’ talent, as it has been doing already in South Africa and India.
Led by Prof. Teodorescu, the students of the Master Program Integral Studies of Campus Waiblingen in Germany, together with the professors Lic. Fernando Perez, Ricardo Geldres and students of the Industrial Design Faculty of Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú in Lima, decided to embark in this new adventure addressing the Uros. Uros are indigenous people who live islands on small floating island on Lake Titicaca. Model of living on the floating islands of the Titicaca Lake, 3, 812 meters above sea level, looking for a fresh and inspiring experience.
The goal of the Totora Project is to create original solutions and a portfolio of applications based on this peculiar material, which are open to any involved community and generously free to replicate for anyone. We aim to continue the unique habitat that the Uros have developed along the time, with modern knowledge, and answering their expectation of a modern life quality, without importing ready-made products or alienating their millenary tradition and use of reeds.
PUCP & SAdBK_Totora Project
In March 2010, the Totora Project team worked together with the Uros craftsmen during the implementation phase of the project, bringing to reality these solutions covering basic needs such as hygiene, shelter, cooking, shade, water supply, energy, etc.; reaching also different expressions such as identity symbols, entertainment, non-prescriptive furniture, child security, water sports and games, gathering points for the community, etc.
The results show the enormous, contagious potential of this fascinating material. The new technique of “concentric laminated layers of Totora” used on the applications built on the Islands allows for the material to be strong as wood and gives the chance to renew the outer layer whenever it is needed without losing strength.
The specific character of the Totora Project should be sustained by a regular input of fresh ideas, challenging the skills of Uros craftsmen and opening new applications for the Totora that grows abundantly.
For this reason, and starting in 2011, the Totora Project will continue with a yearly creativity input, within the Candelaria Festivity on February, named the Totora Festival, which will bring together students from around the world, such as architects, engineers, designers, scientists and local craftsmen, to encourage the development of the floating islands as comfortable and individually profiled Totora habitats.
The solutions of the Totora Project are replicable everywhere where large water bodies with reed or rush vegetation exist. The Amazon region is a very good example of this.
Like any living language, a tradition is refreshed through inspiration and by absorbing knowledge. Heither lives on in later generations as an active and expressive partner within the larger context of global civilization, or it stagnates and becomes an “exotic museum”. Uros are a living Culture and Totora will continue to gently accompany humanity as it has done from its very beginning.
PUCP & SAdBK_Totora Project
