Synergy of Ecology and People: Urum

Location: Peru

Status: Schematic Design

Type: Master Plan

A place is more than its capacity to accommodate infrastructure, stimulate economic growth, or hold residents. When thoughtfully crafted and considered, a place can also offer respite, peace, and an oasis from the realities that plague daily life. A designer’s role is to consider all the qualitative and quantitative aspects of space when dictating its future.

In the case of a new community in northern Peru, it has been designed to conserve and complement the landscape that contains it. Rooted in a deep analysis of the area’s topology, vegetation, and hydrological flows, the project will develop less than 5% of the land, leaving the rest as a natural preserve. Each structure is designed as a piece of the landscape rather than in or on the landscape. These structures are discreetly inserted into the land, work with existing natural cycles, and strengthen the ecosystem while offering residents a place that puts them in close contact with their surroundings.

Additional project contributors include: Queenie Xu, Lu Yingying, Laura del Pino.