In 2013, the Government of Ecuador launched projects for four new public universities in an effort to strengthen higher education in underserved parts of the country. Ikiam is one of them and focuses on research related to challenges and opportunities in the Amazon Region. The site for this university is located 8km north of the city of Tena, at the border of the highly biodiverse Colonso-Chalupas Natural Reserve.

The campus design proposes a pedestrian spine from which clusters of buildings stem out and connect with secondary forest and the Tena river. The southern, more public part of the campus hosts the library, classrooms, lecture halls, laboratories and administrative buildings. Walking north, one encounters sport facilities and finally, at the other side of the Pashimbi creek, the residential quarters for students and researchers. Parallel to the pedestrian spine, an existing road provides limited parking areas and connects the campus to the city of Tena.

The architecture negotiates between technical requirements for research and teaching spaces and the harsh climatic conditions of the Amazon. Bioclimatic modelling and the use of common materials found close to the site were the basic points of departure for design. Compressed earth blocks (CEB) are the main material for masonry, providing enough thermal mass to keep interior spaces cool. A skin made of seike wood louvers covers windows and open circulations, protecting the building from the sun, also reducing the need for mechanical cooling systems. Whenever possible, glass is avoided, providing social and circulation spaces a closer connection to the forest. The wooden louver screen also aims to protect birds from crashing into windows and reduces light pollution towards the forest at night.

Existing secondary forest patches were integrated as part of the landscape design strategy, which includes ethnobotanical and agro-ecological open laboratories in previously deforested farmland. A reforestation strategy is also part of the campus design and is based on research on the mutual effect between Amazonian plant species and architecture by Shuar Ethnobotanist Teresa Shiki. The forest canopy plays a role as shelter between buildings and along paths that stem out to explore the forest, rivers and creeks.

As with any pioneering initiative, the university (as institution and as infrastructure) still faces great challenges in the short and mid-term. However, positive effects are already taking place. Students from all over the country are now exposed to and engaging with the realities of the Amazon; indigenous communities from the province are using the first phase of the campus as a hub for meetings and workshops; and an international and local community of researchers has moved to Tena, therefore looking at the Amazon from the Amazon.

Ikiam University’s Campus design was the recipient of the Sustainable Development Solutions Network (SDSN) Amazonia Infrastructure Award at COP 21 in Paris, 2015