Office: Natura Futura | ArchDaily

La Colmena - Multi-family Housing as Shared Neighborhood Infrastructure / Ancestra + Natura Futura

Valentina Díaz — Mon, 14 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Located in Durán, a satellite city of Guayaquil, the project is set in an environment marked by social and urban tensions. These conditions have increasingly promoted closed, isolated living spaces, reducing social dynamics. A retired couple decided to purchase a run-down property to create three living spaces that would revitalize the neighborhood in a productive and safe way.

House of Prayer / Natura Futura

Rayen Sagredo — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 19:52:00 +0000

Architecture as an intermediary for encounter, reflection, and restoration.

Canteria Urban Restaurant / Natura Futura

Rayen Sagredo — Sat, 04 Jul 2026 19:52:00 +0000

The project arises from a series of interventions within the city, aiming to work alongside young entrepreneurs in underutilized or abandoned spaces, betting on the vision of architecture as a reactivator and generator of new experiences.

The House of Time / Natura Futura

Valentina Díaz — Tue, 07 Apr 2026 03:00:00 +0000

The House of Time: Architecture as a Biological Clock - Located in Babahoyo, Ecuador, a city tied to the river through its tradition and culture. Over the years, a fast-paced urban lifestyle has been normalized, distancing people from an understanding of our natural context and its artisanal processes. The House of Time proposes the possibility of a place where domestic living and collective learning can coexist. Time is conceived through habitable cycles, the river, craftsmanship, and sharing.

The Floating Neighborhood of Las Balsas / Natura Futura

Andreas Luco — Mon, 17 Nov 2025 03:00:00 +0000

Developed along the banks of the Babahoyo River in Ecuador. Two hundred years ago, the river was home to more than 250 floating houses; by 2010, over 80 families had been displaced to municipal housing developments located six kilometers away, disconnecting them from their commercial, social, and cultural ties, as well as from their traditional ways of life. Today, barely twenty-five homes remain afloat on the river, under conditions inadequate for community development. Given this situation, the project proposes a public and private space (for local inhabitants) that revalues the floating ecosystem by recovering traditional building techniques for the preservation of the river’s social and natural habitat.

La Panificadora Centro desarrollo y de producción rural / Natura Futura

Andreas Luco — Tue, 15 Jul 2025 03:00:00 +0000

In the rural settlements of Babahoyo, on Ecuador’s coast, historically dependent on major urban centers for development, the lack of productive spaces aligned with local needs has diminished their autonomy. Despite having common meeting areas such as sports courts or small plazas, these have not succeeded in activating productive forces or significantly improving living conditions.

The Candelabro Floating Cultural Platform / Natura Futura

Paula Pintos — Mon, 24 Jun 2024 16:00:00 +0000

The cultural processes in Babahoyo have traditionally taken place inland, in the city, reinforcing the idea that art and culture can only develop on land. This overlooks the fact that the river is not just a space for mobility but a public space that has been inhabited for centuries, though currently neglected by many.

Productive Floating House - La Balsanera / Natura Futura + Juan Carlos Bamba

Benjamin Zapico — Tue, 21 Nov 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Context. In Ecuador, several centuries ago, the Babahoyo River and its floating houses became one of the main gathering, storage, and resting points on the commercial route for merchants and farmers between the cities of Guayaquil and Quito, using a construction system with greater resilience and adaptability over the years.

The Floating Greenhouse / Natura Futura + Juan Carlos Bamba

Benjamin Zapico — Wed, 24 May 2023 06:00:00 +0000

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.

Community Productive Development Center Las Tejedoras / Natura Futura + Juan Carlos Bamba

Benjamin Zapico — Tue, 18 Apr 2023 07:00:00 +0000

Architecture as a tool for the insertion, linkage, and support of women weavers.

Operations Within Apartments / Natura Futura

Clara Ott — Fri, 10 Feb 2023 19:00:00 +0000

In the last 40 years, the city of Babahoyo, Ecuador, with a population of approximately 150,000 inhabitants, has suffered a significant decrease in the construction of government-supported collective housing in favor of the development of speculative urban models with an economic focus on the outskirts of the city. This and other urban processes have resulted in the continuous deterioration of multi-family blocks, social segregation, the privatization of public space, abandonment of housing units, and an increase in the perception of insecurity.

Santay Observatory / Natura Futura + Juan Carlos Bamba

Pilar Caballero — Wed, 17 Aug 2022 07:00:00 +0000

The Santay Observatory is a floating space for artistic expressions, training workshops for children and adults, environmental research, and community integration activities.

Productive House La Balconera / Natura Futura

Agustina Coulleri — Mon, 30 May 2022 07:00:00 +0000

Located in the city of Montalvo, a satellite city of Babahoyo, Ecuador, with approximately 16 thousand inhabitants, has based its urban growth on a horizontal, dispersed, and low density. This has led to the abandonment of traditional organizational systems such as the gallery and the porch that promoted the connection with the street and community life. In this sense, it seeks to recover the link between private and public use.

Ficus Alto Art Space / Natura Futura

Pilar Caballero — Thu, 21 Apr 2022 16:00:00 +0000

Ficus Alto expresses the need for a space of convergence and exploration for new artists from satellite communities, where food, art, and music can foster shared experiences.

La Pradería Sports Integration Center for Rural Areas / Natura Futura

Clara Ott — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 08:00:00 +0000

La Pradería is located in the rural territory of Babahoyo City with a population of approximately 17,985 inhabitants, where the absence of sports facilities is not enough; its infrastructure barely covers basic needs and complementary spaces are almost never provided. It is important to explore how private entities can promote the creation of spaces that link and reinterpret local architecture with sport activities.

Operation Between Walls / Natura Futura

Clara Ott — Mon, 15 Nov 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Architecture as an Exploration of Limits and Possibilities. The absence of public policies that regulate the ways of generating a city affects a large part of Latin America. Such a situation is the result of a lack of reading the context and understanding that the city is a physical expression of those who inhabit it. Bearing this in mind, it is necessary to create laws that value traditional materials and local labour, creating more sustainable cities.

Bardales Urban Training Center / Natura Futura

Clara Ott — Sun, 26 Sep 2021 17:00:00 +0000

In Latin America, the fundamental role of facilities as the link between citizens and the city has been dispensed. Preventing citizens from exercising their right to it. These spaces represent the principles of collective life and are a tool to produce positive impacts on social groups.

Housing and Educational Space La Casa que Habita / Natura Futura

Clara Ott — Tue, 04 May 2021 07:00:00 +0000

This project treats architecture as a diversifier of urban centres (Productive Urban Housing + Education Space). In Latin America, the growing urbanization process of recent years has produced innumerable changes, the loss of vitality of the traditional central areas being the most damaging.