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Architects: Juan Carlos Bamba, Natura Futura Arquitectura
- Area: 18 m²
- Year: 2023
Tropical pile-dwellings and floating greenhouse for floodable communities. The floating orchard is conceived as micro floating and piled equipment that reflects on new possibilities of food production, adaptable for floodable communities, revaluing local and innovative techniques to respond to the effects of climate change, as well as the development of sustainable-resilient cities and communities.
Floodable territories. The project is located in the peripheral area of the Samborondón canton, on the coast of Ecuador, with a rural population of approximately 19,000 inhabitants. Despite its high participation in the agricultural economy of the Guayas province, unsatisfied basic needs are a constant in the sector's enclosures.
Traditionally, 70% of the territory has been used for rice cultivation due to its floodable geography, which conditions its inhabitants to remain isolated for at least 3 months on created islets during the winter season. The floodable condition of the territory, where the orchard is implemented, implies that food production for the two families in the hamlet is impossible between January and May.
Collaborative management model. The World Food Program (WFP) in a public call invites teams nationwide to develop pilot projects on the implementation of Nature-Based Solutions (NbS) in sectors exposed to climate risk in Manta, Samborondón, Daule, and Quito. The YES Innovation study developed intervention strategies and implemented NbS in these four sites.
In Samborondón, together with the risk management department of the municipality, they worked on the proposal, design, and construction of a set of NbS devices with the aim of creating an autonomous, resilient, and self-sustaining island for the three families that inhabit it. The solutions propose replicable methods and prototypes, with the aim of improving the resilience of each hamlet.
In this process, collaboration is established with Natura Futura and Juan Carlos Bamba studios, to design and execute a floating orchard that allows the planting and harvesting of food while the territory of the communities remains flooded, where access and use by land become riverine during the winter months. The project was executed in two months.
Equipment prototype: between piled and floodable. The structure is composed of portals built with local wood connected to each other through tubular metal elements. The modular portal type used in the project seeks its future replicability, rapid construction, and adaptability to the natural conditions of the site. The portals are connected to a 6x3m (18m2) platform that floats through PET tanks.
This base is anchored to a mobile system of four piles, which maintains the platform at ground level during the summer and allows its buoyancy in winter periods. Hanging and shelf pots are proposed within the equipment to optimize the volume of vegetable and vegetable production, considering ventilation, humidity, and adequate temperature for the correct growth of crops through the use of a lightweight greenhouse membrane. Solar panels located on the cover are proposed for nighttime lighting.
The orchard seeks to expand the range of floating solutions to improve the habitability of floodable communities. This is achieved through the active participation of international organizations, communities, companies, and professionals who seek to value local artisanal techniques and the potential to generate resilient and sustainable communities in the face of imminent climate change.
