Cacao Interpretation Center / Taller Con Lo Que Hay 4 + ENSUSITIO ArquitecturaCourtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura Architects:Taller Con Lo Que Hay 4, ENSUSITIO Arquitectura Location:Archidona, Ecuador Concept, Design and Construction:Con lo que hay 4 Architectural Design Studio Pontifica Universidad Catlica del Ecuador (PUCE) Quito Student Team:Taller con lo que hay 4 (Carlos De la Torre, Xavier Duque, Diego Gaibor, Francisco Garcia, Pavel Guerron, Nataly Moreno, Emilia Pallares, Pablo Perez, Andrea Puertas, Maria Mercedes Reinoso ) Tutor:Enrique Villacis Tapia Project Year:2014 Photographs:Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Collaboration:ENSUSITIO Arquitectura,Cynthia Ayarza, Lorena Rodriguez Engineering:Patricio Cevallos Chocolates Pacari:Santiago Peralta, Carla Barboto, Gabriela Paredes Sociologist:David Jara Compost Toilet Advisor:RED ECOSUR- Ing Paul Moreno Santa Rita Community President:Bolvar Alvarado Dean FADA-PUCE:Arq. Alexis Mosquera Coordination FADA PUCE:Arq. Miroslava Garzn Transportation:Pedro Len, Guillermo Pacheco Photographs:Taller Con Lo Que Hay / ENSUSITIO ArquitecturaBookmark this picture!Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO ArquitecturaQuichua Amaznica de Santa Rita Community (Ecuador)Cacao Interpretation Center is a space for the Kichwa community of Santa Rita, intended for the analysis, dissemination and understanding of their culture, traditions and especially cacaoprocesses from cultivation to becoming the best chocolate in the world. In late 2012 the company Chocolates Pacari felt the need to bring the final chocolate consumer with thevery beginning, not as an act of marketing, but to show community and traditional processes involving cultivation and manufacturing. This project is a collaborative effort of the community with the Pacari chocolate company, Taller Con lo que Hay from PUCE-FADA and the office ensusitio arq.Bookmark this picture!Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO ArquitecturaCon lo que hay is an academic architecture studiowithin FADA-PUCE Quito, for levels seven and eight as a pre-professional opportunity where students ultimately apply their academic knowledge along with social work within a specific community. The workshop includes from diagnosis, analysis, conceptualization, design and participatory architectural construction themes, to the design and publication of manuals for use by the population where they intervene.Bookmark this picture!Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO ArquitecturaThe project consists of three platforms, the access and welcoming platform where the community will have the chance to show and produce their crafts, the second, to discover the culinary culture and consists of an open fire toshare where every tourist can make their ownchontacuro maito and carachama, traditional local fare; and finally the platform that shows the processes of cacao, which contains a sample of drying, fermentation and roasting processes, where finally one has the possibility of making handmade chocolate.Bookmark this picture!

These three spaces are sheltered by a large deck that leaves an adequate ample, free, agora type space for the community and its children especially toshow their traditional events, but more importantly, it is a space for the community to share together, to stay and play, as magically and unexpectedly the infrastructure became a big game due toits particular shape. Furthermore, as an additional service to the community and to provide a level of comfort for tourists, we build anaccess bridge connecting adjacent hamlets with Santa Rita, and a composting toilet it is also built with dehydration by solar energy, which is the best option for the area giventhe highly humid climate.Bookmark this picture!Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO ArquitecturaAll this infrastructure is built on the principles of "what there is", that is, traditional materials and local knowledge, and our easily replicable technological contributions to value even more the ancestral, settingit in a contemporary context. All structures are built on huge rocks discovered on the site, thus developing a simple and replicable using technology which uses the stone asfoundation and generating the particular structure of the project. Everything else is built with local materials and technology; bamboo cane structure, rattan tiescovered with straw, and chonta and chuncho floors.Bookmark this picture!Platform SectionPacari activates the site with training on the sustainable management of cacaoand community tourism, and Con lo que Hayprovides a manual publication in which the community can be supported to replicate traditional materials based on their contemporary technologies and building systems, as applied in the project.Bookmark this picture!Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO ArquitecturaEmpowermentThis project aims to create collaborative networks where everyone wins but without generating dependencies. So that each actor plays an important dependent but not indispensablerole.The important thing about this process is that we are not direct participants as designers but at the request of the community we are advisers in their processes, so they are taking power of theirdecisions but with a technical and responsible support.Bookmark this picture!Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO ArquitecturaThe legacy, to know when to exitFrom the end of theacademic year, taller con lo que hayhas continued to monitor the project, this time overseeing its development by Ensustio Arquitectura, empowering the student again. Likewise, the workshop has left the country to tell of itsexperience within the TAU (Urban Activation Workshop, San Jose, Costa Rica), thus they are not only recipients butissuers of experiences.At present the project is enriched with every visit of tourists and connoisseurs of chocolate processes. It is very gratifying to see how the community appropriates the infrastructure, giving it the necessary and specific uses, making it grow and mutate.

Enrique Villacs TapiaBookmark this picture!Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Courtesy of Taller Con Lo Que Hay /ENSUSITIO Arquitectura

Location Sketch

Timeline

Platform Plan

Platform Section

Sections

Cacao Platform Section

Community Platform Section

Gastronomic Platform Section