Karibao
Playas, Ecuador (2012-2017)
Preliminary design, in collaboration with RE

Shrimp farming in Ecuador was a booming industry in the 1970s, covering 200,000 hectares along the Pacific coast. In 1999, the ferocious ‘white spot’ virus devastated most of the farms, leaving vast trenches of the coast with abandoned, unusable salinized land, causing a great ecological disaster and economic despair for local communities. 
This project is an attempt to restore the coastland by building a seaside residential complex on one of those abandoned shrimp farms. The base of the design is created precisely by readjusting the former shrimp ponds and turning them into the feature for a landscape of lagoons where residential clusters are placed. In the centre of the complex, an artificially made “Crystal Lagoon” presides the whole complex for leisure and viewing purposes of the 3000 housing units.