What we build together material expression of ritual and care in southern Chile
brittany giunchigliani
Beyond the abstracted understanding of how water affects the world around us lies an opportunity to reconceptualise the ways in which water shapes us. It degrades. It brings life. It is scarce. Its behaviours are versatile. If we give more attention to the movement, dissolution, transformation and interactions of water, the body and our environments, if we embrace a notion of wateriness in practice, might our work become more flexible, nimble and intentional? Thinking this way challenges the prominent western paradigm of self sufficiency, individualism and excess as we look to watery logics for inspiration. This inquiry invites us to look beyond our profession and explore strategies of artisanal fishers who intimately work with and in the sea.
Water, an omnipresent element within our bodies and the environment, holds a wealth of dynamic and collaborative qualities that are often overlooked in architecture and landscape architecture. In this line of work, the mechanics of water is inherently entangled with our material choices but is often over-simplified and undervalued. Critical geographer Jamie Linton argues that our perception and understanding of water has been reduced to a measurable unit – H 2 O, stripping away its inherent connection to bodies and the environment. Within spatial design, this process of modernising water has led to a rigid and impermeable built environment.
all images Brittany Giunchigliani
Field notes and diagrams from a meeting with Marcia Pérez, a multi- generational Pelillo harvester who lives outside of Ancud, Chiloé Island, Chile
In February 2023, I conducted field research in small coastal towns within the Los Ríos and Los Lagos regions of southern Chile. There, I had the opportunity to engage with a diverse group of artisanal fishers who rely on the sea for their livelihoods. From seaweed harvesters to crabbers to fisherpeople, each person’s relationship to the water was illuminated through different strategies of ritual and care. These were often shaped by wisdom passed down through generations within their close-knit communities and the specific demands of their respective trades. Consequently, this interweaving of knowing a place and professional necessity manifested in deliberate and meaningful material expressions along the shoreline. Working with water has its own temporality - a diurnal and seasonal rhythm that requires one to be responsive with intention. Within these two rhythms there are different rituals: daily routines such as harvesting at specific times during the day depending on the tides, and seasonal tasks such as mending and replacing tools. These activities vary by fishing village and that which is being harvested. Each system, catch, place requires its own material approach, cared for not only by the individuals using them, but also the web of people that interact within this waterscape.
24
on site review 43: architecture and t ime
Made with FlippingBook Online newsletter maker