PROJECT DESCRIPTION:
The key to the success of this project is hinged upon its effectiveness on connecting the rest of the world with the Kallari people. This link will help the kallari people to engage in the international market with promising potential income to sustain the future of their communities.
The organization of the project is analogous to the concept of a charm bracelet. The strategy for this project is to showcase the “exotic” at specific points along the walk through the project. The program elements are grouped into several nodes, each designed with a specific function to educate the people engaged in it, whether the knowledge is about chocolate making or of unfamiliar culture. While visitors coming to the factory learn about the Kallari culture and its chocolate-making process, the Kallari workers can observe and learn about the visitors, and consequently using that information to adjust their products.
Research of the indigenous people of Ecuador and their rituals inspired us to design something that would help them express themselves as well as sustaining the legacy of their values. We felt compelled to provide a framework which could give the Kallari people the opportunity to display their creation of art in textile and other mediums.
We conceived an easy-to-construct, four-foot-high, continuous bamboo post system to help us achieve our goal. This system winds through the site and goes through each of the six major program components. Just as the chain of the charm bracelet links all the jewels together, this continuous ribbon becomes the datum that ties all the program elements together.
Other than unifying the project, this continuous ribbon also creates an intimate communal space for performing rituals and for encouraging informal interaction. This system provides many functional devices like seating, shelving for handicrafts and hangers for textile works. However, more importantly, it provides an ever changing mural of Kallari history to help educating people and preserving precious tradition with important values. As time goes on, the display would change to reflect a unique story relevant of the time.
By placing the buildings to the north/ east on the flatter part of the site we were able to minimize the amount of site disturbance and cut/fill that would have to take place. Since there are 6 small buildings and not one big one, the foundations and structure will be of manageable sizes. Indigenous materials like bamboo, thatched roofs and stone will be put together by local artisans without difficulty. Since the site is on a river and in a hilly area, there will be a constant wind that could aid in natural ventilation of open air spaces. The river is also a good source for turbine generated power. The photovoltaic panels would also aid in the supply of power.
Just like the charms are connected in the bracelet, technology will weave in and out of the spaces to connect them to each other as well as to other parts of the world. The auditorium in the community center serves as an open forum for visitors and kallari people to discuss issues that would be transferred to the rest of the world via the research library and the technology hubs. The factory has interactive kiosks (touch-screens, computerized ingredient mixers, audio/ visual effects) that help explain how chocolate is made.
