Architectural Design Archive
NIM AK'MU
NIM AK'MU is proposed in order to reinforce the agricultural economy and correct the urban disintegration of the Q'eqchi communities in Guatemala: a public center to house communal life and the processes of post-harvest transformation. Meeting place, workplace, the communal soul; an architecture that integrates the organic geometry of the cultivation areas with the orthogonal rigidity of the local constructions.

Two opposing factors are responsible for shaping this project. On the one hand, a light, complex, arboreal structure, built from the small scale, as a support for the large roof where the life of the community will develop. A cozy forest; an enclosure that, from the flexibility of its use, it is inviting for everyone who inhabits it. This also offers a suitable environmental conditions for the drying of the seeds. In order to facilitate the drying of the seeds a second reality is incorporated: the chimney, the heat, the home. An independent element that acts as a rigid component and referential milestone of the entire complex. The chimney and floor together to configure the solid world and home.

Robustness and lightness, verticality and horizontality, in permanent dialogue, to create a meeting of roads. The town square. Everyone's house.