This practices work in the Ecuadorian Amazon is shaped by the communities it servesMarialuisa Borja is shortlisted in the 2025 Moira Gemmill Prize for Emerging Architecture, part of the W Awards. Read the full announcementThe Huaticocha community live in the untamed forest of the Sumaco National Park, in eastern Ecuador, a few hours drive from the countrys capital, Quito. In this protected area, the conservation of biodiversity is combined with the protection of ancestral Indigenous culture. Green dominates the landscape, the clouds descending to touch the canopy of the forest. In the Amazon, humidity envelops everything; the sounds ofthe jungle break the silence.It is here that practice Al Borde have designed the Yuyarina Pacha Library for theHuaticocha community, a group of largely Kichwa heritage, an Amazonian Indigenous people. The community hasdeveloped Witoca, an agricultural coffeeassociation that, together with the Sarawarmi Creative Laboratory, began an informal pilot education project for local children in 2019. Its success resulted in amore permanent school, for which the Huaticocha community decided that a newlibrary was required. They contacted AlBorde, a Quitobased architecture studio known for collaborating with Indigenous groups and realising their ambitions.Consisting of Marialuisa Borja, David Barragn, Pascual Gangotena and EstebanBenavides, Al Borde is more thanan architecture studio; it is a creative collective which integrates cultural, societal and environmental responsibilities into anarchitectural process. From their firstprojects, they have been committed to serving the most economically disadvantaged social groups, to find viable solutions to their needs. In 2009, Al Borde received anunusual commission to design and build aschool in the rural coastal community of Cabuyal in Ecuador, with a budget of only US$200. They managed to achieve this goal within budget with a single structure onthe beach, known as Escuela La Nueva Esperanza (NewHope School).Marialuisa Borja explains that in the Yuyarina Pacha Library, as in all Al Borde projects, the design process is shared by thefour members of the team in a dialectical dynamic. Projects are debated with users in a process that Borja describes as fundamental. Thanks to this dialogue, thecommunities with which Al Borde workcontribute their visions, knowledge and experiences. Informed by this, the team builds models and visits the site as many times as necessary, holding discussions withlocal people. This process means that the users take ownership of the projects, making them their own long before they arebuilt. Through discussions with members of the Huaticocha community, the brief transformed from a library into a multiuse space called Yuyarina Pacha, translating asspacetime to think.The library is located in a clearing in the forest an offering to the place as well as tothe Indigenous children who live there. Thestructure is perceived as a tree that is inhabited from the ground to its crown, with three levels that can be appropriated for different uses. The ground level is used for handson art and science classes and for all activities that require water, from cooking to painting; informal meetings can also be accommodated in the shade it offers. Like the local houses, the main space is elevated on columns, to protect from snakes and other animals. This openplan floor houses the collection of books arranged on open shelves, easily accessible to the children; itisalso large enough for public assemblies and other community activities. An upper mezzanine level runs along the perimeter ofthe room, accommodating, as well as books, digital resources, such as tablets andcomputers, and crucially an audio collection of stories that preserve the oral history oftheHuaticocha community. Reading tables overlook the large space below, like abalcony, and the pitched roof soars above.The building combines both enclosed andopen spaces, with permeable voids thatallow air to pass through and cool the interior a quality informed by the designs of local vernacular houses that breathe inthe same way. The magnificent, steeply sloping thatched roof skilfully withstands the regions copious rainfall and integrates aglass skylight, allowing natural light into the reading spaces.Al Bordes process means that users take ownership of projects, making them their own long before they are builtThe building adopts the qualities of the site as if it had always belonged to it. In fact, the materials with which it was built were collected from the site itself or its nearby surroundings, informed by the Huaticocha communitys experience and knowledge ofthe place, its conditions and products. Thestructure consists of a system of woodenbeams and columns, made of chonta (Iriartea deltoidea), a species of palm tree. As well as a building material, the tree also provides red fruit that is a food source for Indigenous peoples and wild animals alike. This wood is traditionally used in Amazonian houses, and is recognised for its structural durability, resistance to humidity and insects. In the library, the chonta columns are anchored to the ground withoutthe need for preservatives or coatings against humidity. The roof is made of paja, aplant fibre obtained from a local palm tree, which offers great flexibility and lightness, aswell as resistance to humidity.Al Borde have developed a project with minimal use of local resources to the greatest effect. Millimetre precision does not prevail in this architecture; the materials used are organic and irregular. Al Bordes approach allows for an adaptive architecture, in which solutions are found during construction onsite, responding to the imperfection of lowcost, organic and recycled materials. The building was constructed by members ofthe community under Al Bordes direction; though not always qualified builders, the residents gaps in experience were resolved by the architects, as well as the popular wisdom of others working on site. Al Borde persistently create spaces forlearning, not only in their architecture but inlife in general; what and how to do are as important as the final finished product.The project is built with the resources and techniques of the place, Borja explains, the traditions with which the community has built over time and has shared from generation to generation. Al Bordes architectural responses are always unique: solutions that were successful in some contexts may not necessarily be applied inothers. What can be applied, however, istheir method, which has at its heart participatory planning and determined collaboration between users and architects. In all cases, through this participatory process, the project ends up being for everyone: the key to its success.Each Al Borde project represents the will of people to commit to ideas, take risks and participate in decisionmaking, Borja insists. For example, the Casa Jardn, asinglefamily home designed for an environmentalist and completed in 2020, isbuilt from living elements; live trees generate spaces that grow from the garden.Outside Ecuador, at the 2023 Sharjah Architecture Triennial in the UAE, AlBordes pavilion, named Umbral Crudo (Raw Threshold), generates a welcoming space, providing shade created from palm mats that hang from a wooden structure. The project will last as long as space demands it, and the day will come when these materials degrade naturally, closing the cycle of their life in a harmonious way withnature.Al Borde is unlike a conventional architecture office: the practice structure iscollaborative, and they are constantly seeking to involve other professionals who share their perspective. The core team of four are consistently complemented by other architects and students who pass through the office who learn and are also learned from. We have discovered that our work is enhanced when we make decisions together, Borja explains. We cannot work alone. AlBorde proposes a flexible interpretation of professional practice; its members divide their time between various activities inparticular teaching, giving workshops, courses and conferences at schools of architecture around the world allowing them to survive economically and also benefit from new experiences.In Al Borde projects, without exception, aesthetics is important, but not supreme. Instead, the priorities are the ethics of the approach, the energy consumed and the participation of the end users in the process. In their world, or at least the one they are trying to build, being an architect carries theethical duty to resolve urgent needs with common sense, generosity, reflection, open participation and unlimited dedication.