Resguarda la raíz, arquitectura para las comunidades indígenas

Abstract

The municipality of Arauca, known for its cultural diversity and the strong presence of indigenous communities such as the Sikuani, Hitnü, and U'wa, faces an important challenge: how to guarantee housing redesign processes that respect their traditional ways of life. For decades, land planning policies and the armed conflict have created territories designed under homogeneous standards, disconnected from the indigenous worldview. This has led to informal settlements, loss of ancestral practices, disruption of community life, and serious conditions of poverty and vulnerability.

This research, developed in the Matecandela indigenous reservation, proposes an opportunity to rethink habitat from an integral perspective, understanding living as a deep relationship between territory, culture, and clan-based social organization. Through a mixed methodological approach that included multicomponent territorial analysis and fieldwork with the community, the project seeks to integrate indigenous ways of life into a housing model that recognizes their territory through their cultural and social identity, helping to reduce processes of deterritorialization and acculturation.