‘Mapping the Bauhaus’: this is how the first interactive map and inventory of modern architecture in Ecuador is built

The Bauhaus was the school of architecture, design and art founded in 1919 by Walter Gropius in Weimar (Germany), and which gained strength until become a pedagogical and experimental center that can be considered as the world’s first design school and who laid the foundations for modern design.

Today, and more than a century later, In Ecuador, the project “Mapping the Bauhaus on the other side of the world” is carried out, a participatory research proposal that has the citizenship, the unions and the academy to demonstrate the importance and value of the contributions of modern heritage in all aspects of daily life, in addition to become the first interactive map of modern architecture in the country.

“Latin America also intends to achieve the ideal of modernity by adopting these new paradigms. But he does it from his own visions, interpretations and contradictions. Modern codes become universal, but at the same time they are acquiring the spirit of the local, covering new territories and creating other landscapes.”, defines the official site of the project.

This newspaper spoke with Maria Soledad Salazararchitect and teacher in Urban Rehabilitation from the Central University of Ecuador; Maria Susana Grijalva, architect from the Central University of Ecuador and Master in Urban Studies from Flacso Ecuador; Y Rosa Amelia PovedaEcuadorian-German choreographer and graduate in Education Sciences in Language, Music and Movement from PUCE, about this initiative that It already extends through Guayaquil, Cuenca, Quito and the northern Sierra.

The project is supported by the Humboldt Center (Quito) and the German Cultural Center (Guayaquil).

“Modern architecture is in danger. It is the architecture that is disassembled very easily because it is not inventoried”. Then, we’re throwing away modern houses, pieces of history, someone’s investment. And, our purpose is to generate a brake so that the neighborhoods do not break down with the loss of Buildings that should be recycled. There is no need to throw something away to build, because that will be a much higher price,” warns Salazar.

What is the origin of this project and what is its objective?

Maria Susana: Start in 2019, a commemorative date of the 100th anniversary of the founding of the Bauhaus, but since 2018 we had already started working a project that would allow us to make an analysis and delve a little into the influence of this school on modern architecture in the country, but not only in architecture, but really in all aspects in which this school had an influence: art, design, philosophy…, basically in almost all subjects of life. Y what it seeks is to map the influence of this iconic school in our territoriesin the cities, but we also hope that at some point It can also be a little broader and more regional.

What other edges does this project have?

Rosa Amelia: Along with the MAE (Architecture Archive Museum of Ecuador) we did the holiday “Playing with the Bauhaus on the other side of the world”. And what was done was an adaptation of the preliminary course (the Vorkurs) of the Bauhaus (taught by Johannes Itten) to a format for children from 7 to 11 years old. It was quite an interesting experience (…). There was even minor children who accompanied us and who achieved the objectives of each activity with very good results (all available on the website in microexhibitions). Beyond having been in the holiday workshop experience, children take tools and a reading skill to live with art objects. Besides, We took to the streets to map the modern architecture of the San Marcos neighborhood. It is an activity that We hope to replicate it in other cities and in other age groups..

What have you discovered in this process?

Soledad: This has been impressive, because initially we estimate to have perhaps 500 quality architectural surveys that reflect this influence of the German school, and It turns out that in the first print run we already had 1,500; and the following semester, 3,000; and, at the moment, we have practically 5,000 records.

At what stage of the study are you in Guayaquil?

Soledad: In Guayaquil we already have contact with the Santiago de Guayaquil Catholic University, with whom we are working on this project because the vice-chancellor, the architect Florencio Compte, has worked on modern architecture in Guayas, which began much earlier than in the rest of the interior of the country, almost parallel to the development of the Bauhaus in Germany, but already the boys are searching these buildings.

What is the goal you hope to achieve with this study?

María Susana: This is already our fourth semester of work with the human resources of the Central University. Then, the records we have in Quito are almost what would be the baseline for the national inventory of modern architecture. And indeed, in May YWe launched the MUCE (Museum of the Central University) of the first Map Of Modern Architecture, found on our website and which showed the results of the study in Quito and the northern Sierra. Then we still did not have records from Guayaquil, where today we already have about 100. The work in Guayaquil will give us other temporalities and other manifestations as well, which, of course, is very enriching for the project and for the history of architecture, design, and art in the country.

What outstanding buildings are among those already registered?

Soledad: For example, is the Ciespal (Quito), which is like an upside down tree; So, it has a power in its language, the use of the basic forms of the triangle, the square, the circle, the textures, the materiality of reinforced concrete. Another emblematic building is the IESS (the Insurance Fund, Guayaquil), with this glass curtain and that spectacular mural covered by a bus stop -we don’t know how it could happen-; but, yes, the floors with the marbles, all the ironwork inside, the spatiality, the amount of light that comes through the windows on all sides. Just to mention a couple. (YO)