WDM 4_23 Lecture | Improve the landscape through community work

General subject area | Landscape and community

Abstract | Due to the Ecuadorian social-cultural background, community work has been always existing under the Kichwa language name of “Minga” which consists of collective work for the betterment of physical space. Ecuadorian people have an immense load of indigenous cultures and features, one of them is guard the nature and water as the first provider in the settlement. Unfortunately, this attribute is being lost due to the growth of the city. On one hand, Quito, the capital of Ecuador counts with 182 streams, all polluted by wastewater, sewage, and garbage. And on the other, the high cost of living in the hyper center has led the population to abuse hillside, ravine land and build settlements that do not meet basic living requirements. Most of these neighborhoods have a high probability of disaster due to earthquakes, alluvion, rains, etc and they are strongly contributing to the degradation of the natural landscape around the ravines. Therefore, the settlements have polluted the streams and rivers widening the already existing infrastructure gap in the city.

The aim is to describe the main characteristics of Minga, study cases of neighborhoods that have helped to recover landscape through community work in damaged areas, specifically in slopes or ravines near to rivers in urban areas, and approach intervention guidelines to develop the landscape situated in slopes in the city of Quito.

Register in advance for this lecture After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the lecture on Zoom. Participation is free.

Mayte Cuesta is an architect who graduated from the Central University of Ecuador, where the main focus was architectural and urban design. Her main aim is to focus on the social value and community work as the main source of design, considering the importance of the reciprocity in the territory and how inhabitants can be an active part of changing cities.

Tayana Passos Rosa , Ph.D. student at the Doctoral School of Landscape Architecture and Landscape Ecology at the Hungarian University of Agriculture and Life Sciences (MATE-Hungary). With a Degree in Product Design from the Federal Institute of Santa Catarina (IFSC-Brazil). She participated and tutored in the LED2LEAP and OLA projects and her present research work is about applying Landscape Design principles and Design-Based Learning for Environmental Literacy in school communities from different sociocultural backgrounds