Ravine is an Architecture

Atlas to rediscover the role of the ravines and their potential as structuring entities.

Abstract

This essay is developed from the analysis of the ravines in Guatemala and how have they structured our cities since pre-colonial times. Ravines contain a great biodiversity, contribute water to the territory and help to regulate temperatures, nevertheless they have never been valued for their benefits, but rather are identified as residual, dividing, problematic and dangerous spaces, therefore the society that inhabits them has never developed an identity with the landscape. The objective of this research is to visibilize the ravines of Guatemala City in order to rediscover their role as ecotones and socio-environmental devices. To achieve this, the work proposes a change of record of their negative conception through the intentional review of their values by methodologically developing an Atlas, seeking an historical, ecosystemic and social understanding to conceive them as a structuring entity of the territory.