HOME Self-Sustainable Amazonian Cities: settlement relocation at the crossroads

The contemporary urbanisation of Amazonas is a geopolitical creation, and a recent phenomenon. Adapting to the mutable conditions of the river,  local communities created a system based on mobility, economic diversification and multi-sited territorial appropriation. Such use and production of space is now threatened by factors beyond the control of its residents : climate change, recession, unemployment, urban regeneration, and relocation. It is in this complex context that the research project Ciudades Auto-Sostenibles Amazónicas (CASA) has developed a participatory process with local communities and local authorities to co-produce sustainable spatialities and promote alternative livelihoods systems in the Amazonas, starting from local technologies and knowledges.

The Sustainable Livelihoods Amazonian System has recently been awarded the Water Research Prize, World Architecture Festival 2018, and the Peruvian Architecture Biennale Resilient Design Competition for Built Projects.

Belen Desmaison is the Co-Director of PUCP’s Research Centre in Architecture and the City and coordinates a Master’s programme in Sustainable Architecture, Urbanism and Territorial Design. She coordinated the action-research project CASA. The event will include the first public screening of the documentary “Resilient Amazonia: coexistence of forest, people and cities” and the launch of the book CASA Ciudaded Auto-Sostenibles Amazonicas.