The Coquí’s Church project started from a 5 year research focused on the Colombian pacific coast by the seminar “Tides and Mangroves” held by the faculty of architecture of the Universidad de los Andes. From there arises an investigative repository that reflects on the different “sentipensares” of the Pacific focused on the recognition of the being-doing and knowing of Arturo Escobar.


Therefore, the seminar helped to create new relationships with the community of Coquí which, thanks to the documentation collected to date, revealed the importance of some rituals accompanied by traditional chants  from Chocó as a sign of resistance and memory.

Commonly this great gathering guided by songs and traditional ceremonies takes place in the church of the corregimiento. There, the women meet up to sing and accompany the souls that leave and the lives that remain. However, the conditions of the church does not allow to carry out ceremonies. This is the case of the Virgen del Carmen celebration that could not have the reception in Coquí due to the current state of the church.

Based on these conditions, it is decided to carry out the reconstruction of the chapel with the community, taking into account a participatory approach where the community is the project leader who decides the materials, labor, time and budget they wish to execute.

The project seeks a social impact in the community by building the space that allows Coquiseños to develop their spiritual activities deeply rooted in black culture, therefore, the church is a place where they can continue prolonging this ancestral knowledge. 

On the other hand, the church can become a site of tourist interest as it is a benchmark for the participatory process and self-managed initiative of the Coquí community, since it can become a place where it can host important festivities throughout the year.

Finally, the project looks to strengthen the resilience and ties between the inhabitants of Coquí as it is a project that provided agency to the community to develop a public infrastructure project where they lead the cost and procurement management through and autonomous administration of the resources for the construction of the Church.

The core team is divided in 3 groups. 

Community

Construction leaders: Aster and Smith. Both have an extensive knowledge of the local construction techniques and the supply chain of the pacific coast as the only way to get construction materials is by boat. This know how helps to obtain good prices for the materials and the construction process.

Project Leader: Carmen and Cindy Lida. Both are the community leaders, they have been working on the crowdfunding and the management of the roles in the community. 

Casa Múcura

Is a nonprofit organization that promote initiatives for the integral productivity of rural Colombian territories. In order to strengthen the social and cultural fabric of the communities, they create meetings from co-creation and participatory design. They have several social projects in the Pacific Coast.

Radio Manglar

Research Seminar on territory and landscape of the Colombian Pacific. Is a collective of architects, designers and artists that have experience in social participatory process in architecture and construction.