Harvard GSD, Spring 2023
Option Studio: The Future of Oil Boom Towns in Ecuadorian Amazonia
Instructor: Ana Maria Duran Calisto
Team: Rachaya Wattanasirichaigoon, Rodrigo Martel Orihuela


Shushufindi, a small oil boom town in the middle of Equador's Amazon, has been a frontier of extreme colonization and extraction, displacing indigenous communities from their sacred land. While Equador is the first country that holds Communal Land Ownership for indigenous groups, most lands are in the outer territory, leaving ownership voids in the city centers where political power resembles.

Fruity City proposes a new Urban Communal Living model for the Siekopai community for once possibly acquire Land Ownership in the center of Shushufindi as an act of land reclamation. To avoid exploitation mass tourism, oil extraction, and monoculture, it design negotiates that the communal land could offer public benefits such as public spaces, food security, and also political recognition.

The housing parcelization respects the continuity of the city fabric but attempts to break down the definite public and private spaces as the Siekopais traditionally live as a collective. The outline are like-fence structures that define the inner communal area and the more public-sharing areas such as Schools, Workshop, and Common Dining areas. The urban 'Chakra's are integrated crop fields that can feed the community all year. The edges shape the pedestrian streets into sharable and edible streetscapes.