Building Language: A Traditional Andean Language Center In Ollantaytambo, Cuzco, Peru

Abstract

This thesis conceives of language as the foundation of culture, and explores the creation of a Native Andean Language Center in Cuzco, Peru, as a means of combatting homogenization, pastiche, and social denigration in Peru's Sacred Valley. The establishment of a dedicated space of linguistic exploration has the opportunity to offer native Andean languages and their cultures a physical and symbolic core in which to root, grow, and reestablish legitimacy in contemporary society. In so doing the building seeks neither to imitate nor replicate traditional Andean architecture, nor does it seek to compete with the landscape as an icon or object. Instead it seeks to continue a spatial and cultural journey long since begun, by exploring and interweaving language and architecture, the foundations of both our physical and cultural world.