Deserta EcoFolie, Atacama Desert, Chile

The first version of the Deserta EcoFolie now exhibited in Venice, was curated by the Chilian duo Professor Pedro Alonso & curator Pamela Prado – who gathered a large team of multiple disciplines and partners across, Chile Portugal, Denmark and Italy. The overall aim of ‘Deserta EcoFolie – A prototype for minimum dwelling in the Atacama Desert and beyond‘ is to investigate/test how humans can live in harmony with extreme climatic conditions, here in the context of the Atacama Desert in Chile. The desert climate offers extreme temperature fluctuations, severe humidity conditions caused by intense fog formation, and high solar exposure, which affect the surface properties and durability of the materials. OBEL is proud to support CINARK who have been invited to realize the Deserta EcoFolie, because biogenic materials, as reed/thatch possess properties that enable them to handle these extreme fluctuations. Also, the Deserta EcoFolie project, is conceived with a Whole-Life Carbon approach, focusing on modularity, prefabrication and simple systems for easy disassembly and replacement of structural parts.

Exploring and combining local building knowledge/cultures

New building techniques for the facades of the Deserta EcoFolie will be developed together with the researchers/students from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and local people in the Atacama, that have a culture of making what they call the “quincha”: earth and straw construction. The intention is to get straw from the quinoa producers in the Atacama and produce the biogenic panels in a facility in Iquique. This building technique can be associated with the thatched roofs and facades in CINARKs research work and collaboration with leading Danish thatchers.