Advocating for Natural Resources: Empowering the Riverine Communities of the Amazon through Landscape Architecture

Abstract

Cultural identity in the Amazon region has been destabilized by tensions between tradition and progress. This architectural thesis explores a contested landscape that both balances and revalues nature. The riverine people of the Amazon basin, the so-called ribeirinhos, are among the traditional communities living in the rainforest that have rich cultural history but are deprived of the basic benefits of development. Like many Indigenous peoples, they are dependent on local resources that are threatened by socioeconomic models that persistently degrade the land which jeopardize their main sources for food, water, and leisure activities. The proposed infrastructure and design focuses on agroforestry systems and water cycles, providing opportunities for individuals for a more equitable quality of life. Its main result, a conservation and awareness center in the Amazon delta region, will steward nature and deepen the understanding of the human relationship to natural resources in service of subsistence.