Territorio de los saberes - Mencoriari
by Asociación Semillas para el Desarrollo Sostenible
Mencoriari, Pangoa, Junín, Peru
Project details
Year
2025
project year
2022
building area
91 m²
project website
Location
Team credits
project team
- Asociación Semillas -
Marta Maccaglia,
Giulia Perri,
Angela Yangali Pareja,
Denise Covassin,
Arianna Bordignon.
contributing partners
Paloma Roldán Ruiz,
Stiftung Nord-Süd Brücken,
CPS Comunità Promozione e Sviluppo,
Volcafe Specialty Peru (VSP) Generaciones,
Ruralia (esHoy),
We-building,
Native Community of Mencoriari,
GDPOA – Office for Amazonian Indigenous Peoples (Municipality of Pangoa),
UGEL Pangoa – Local Ministry of Education Office,
CASA [Amazonian Self-Sustaining Cities],
FabLab Perú,
Tsipana Jampi,
Red Arquitectura,
Cabina de la curiosidad.
Territorio de los Saberes is both an architectural and pedagogical initiative that transforms education by situating it within the forest and nature. The project combines an open classroom and a medicinal plant laboratory with a teaching model that bridges Indigenous knowledge and the national curriculum. Through participatory design and construction, it has become a living experiment in how architecture can integrate culture, ecology and education.
The project is located in the Nomatsigenga Indigenous community of Mencoriari, in the central Amazon of Peru. Its direct beneficiaries include 88 secondary school students, seven teachers and more than 480 community members. Like many Indigenous communities in the region, Mencoriari has faced legacies of neglect, conflict and extractive activity. Schools in such contexts often fail to reflect cultural identity or local knowledge systems. Territorio de los Saberes addresses this imbalance by rooting education in place – reconnecting young people to ancestral practices, and validating their languages, rituals and ecological knowledge as essential parts of learning.
The design grows like a living organism: beginning as a seed (the building), evolving into a tree (an intercultural teaching model) and extending into a forest (a traveling museum that shares knowledge across communities). The open classroom and drying lab are flexible spaces used for both formal and informal learning – ranging from storytelling to practical workshops. The architecture opens towards the forest, turning nature into both the setting and the subject of education.
The building is conceived as an elongated shelter: an open classroom without one wall, a central brick volume for storage and offices, and a drying room that opens directly to the surrounding landscape. Each space invites different interactions – teaching, storytelling, and the drying and classification of medicinal plants. Rainwater harvesting and washing stations are integrated into daily routines, helping make ecological cycles visible and tangible for students.
Constructed with certified local timber, clay bricks and lightweight metal roofing, the building responds to the rainforest climate through cross-ventilation, natural lighting and thermoacoustic protection. Wooden beams double as drying racks for plants, merging architectural form with traditional practice. Low-impact materials and bioclimatic strategies reflect an ecological balance of durability and sensitivity to place.
From the start, students, teachers, parents and village elders were involved in workshops to shape the project collectively. This participatory process gives the community pride and ownership, recognizing that traditional knowledge is vital for the future. The architecture, gardens and plant lab help students understand the reciprocal relationship between humans and the forest – how it provides food, medicine and cultural meaning. Beyond Mencoriari, the project’s Traveling Museum carries these lessons to other communities, spreading awareness and intergenerational exchange.
Today, Territorio de los Saberes functions as both a school and a civic centre – a place where students, teachers and residents gather. It strengthens identity and builds educational equity while offering a replicable model for other Amazonian schools. By connecting culture, ecology and pedagogy, it renews pride in Indigenous heritage and fosters dialogue between generations. More than a building, it is a living classroom where architecture itself becomes a tool for learning and resilience.
Semillas (Asociación Semillas para el Desarrollo Sostenible), founded in 2014 by architect Marta Maccaglia, is a nonprofit organization based in Peru that creates transformative educational infrastructure in Indigenous and rural territories. Emerging from earlier cooperation work dating back to 2011, Semillas operates from Lima, Pangoa (Junín) and San Ignacio. Its core team – predominantly women architects – specializes in participatory design, intercultural education and construction in Amazonian and Andean regions. Semillas partners with universities, NGOs and international institutions to engage young professionals and students from fields such as architecture, pedagogy, anthropology and communication. This collaborative approach enriches projects with multiple perspectives while remaining deeply rooted in place. Each project follows a co-creation methodology: conducting participatory diagnostics with communities, co-designing plans, and building with local labour and materials.
The prize money will fund two new pedagogical laboratories in Alto Chichireni and Chuquibambilla, rooted in ancestral knowledge and local resources. In Alto Chichireni, a plant-fibre laboratory will host knowledge workshops, an international construction workshop and the creation of an Itinerant Forest Museum to strengthen cultural identity across communities. In Chuquibambilla, a wood workshop will focus on classifying and sustainably using native timber species. Following the ‘Seed, Tree, Forest’ model, these projects will combine ecological sensitivity, community participation and intercultural pedagogy to build resilient educational spaces. Together, they aim to consolidate a network of Amazonian schools that teach with and for the forest – fostering cultural continuity, environmental awareness and collective learning.
- Information for the project text was provided by Asociación Semillas para el Desarrollo Sostenible -
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Advisory Committee Statement
‘Territorio de los Saberes’ receives the award for Social Engagement because it redefines education as an open, participatory and place-based practice rooted in Indigenous knowledge and local ecologies. Located in the Peruvian Amazon, it brings the school to the people, opening learning spaces directly into the forest – both physically and culturally. Through a phased process of architecture, pedagogy and mobility, it builds a long-term platform for community-driven education and cultural resilience. The simple, adaptable architecture is made largely from local materials and designed to evolve over time. The award recognizes not only the building itself but also the ongoing process around it – a true ‘territory of knowledge’ growing into a forest of shared futures.