seven straw and palm weaved roofs compose napo wildlife center tower in ecuador

Napo Wildlife Center Tower stands in Amazonian Ecuador

Caá Porá Arquitectura and Siete 86 Arquitectos construct the Napo Wildlife Center Tower as part of a broader growth plan for the center dedicated to the Kichwa Añangu community in Amazonian Ecuador. Located in Yasuní National Park, the project is centered around ecotourism providing economic income and combining modernity with ancestral traditions and the unique biodiversity of the region.

The Napo Wildlife Center, an internationally renowned lodge in the continental Amazon, provides a surplus from tourism operations that is used to finance educational, productive, social, cultural, organizational, and conservation projects in the community. The Añangu community maintains an entrepreneurial vision to continue growing both economically, through tourism, and in the development of education plans and the construction of modern and environmentally responsible infrastructure. The concept of the Napo Wildlife Center tower attends to the necessity for a new dining facility and an elevated observation tower that could be operational even during inclement weather.

all images by Gabriel Moyer-Perez – Jose Luis Machado

THE structure utilizes local wood and recycled oil drilling pipes

As the lodge is situated on a small patch of solid ground within a swamp, seismic activity and soil liquefaction, as well as the high-velocity winds are some of the factors that informed the design. The new 30-meter-high lookout contains a dining room and a cultural center, designed in participatory workshops with all members of the community.

To overcome construction challenges, including transporting materials by river, the design team proposes new forms of construction based on cultural syncretism, which combined the ancestral knowledge of the community and traditional methods with modern materials. The project forms a seven-story tower of over 1.200 sqm, with a mixed structure of local wood and recycled oil drilling pipes. The composite columns allow for a significant reduction in material use, resulting in the tallest wooden tower in the Ecuadorian Amazon and one of the tallest in the country. The recycled drilling pipes are earthquake-resistant and adapt well to strong winds. The roofs are made with traditional toquilla straw and royal palm weaves, which have a lifespan of over 20 years. The tower offers panoramic views of the landscape on each level.

the Napo Wildlife Tower is part of a broader growth plan of the center dedicated to Kichwa Añangu community

the project is centered around ecotourism and combines modernity with ancestral traditions of the region

the project forms a 30-meter-high lookout, the tallest wooden tower in the Ecuadorian Amazon

the seven-story tower composes a mixed structure of local wood and recycled oil drilling pipes

the roofs are made with traditional toquilla straw and royal palm weaves

recycled oil drilling pipes and local wood assemble the tower’s framework

the construction combines ancestral knowledge of the community and traditional methods with modern materials

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project info:

name: The Napo Wildlife Center Tower
designer: Caá Porá Arquitectura | @caaporarq – Siete 86 Arquitectos – Kichwa Añangu Community

location: Orellana Province, Ecuador

engineer: Patricio Cevallos

construction: Kichwa Añangu Community

photography: Gabriel Moyer-Perez – Jose Luis Machado

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. see more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: christina vergopoulou | designboom