Chalalan Ecolodge

by Kurt Culbertson and John Suarez

Israeli adventurer Yossi Ghinsberg, a strong advocate for preserving the rainforest and improving the lives of its indigenous peoples, founded the Chalalan Project to promote environmentally sensitive development for San Jose, a hamlet of about 250 along Bolivia's Tuichi River. As part of the project, Ghinsberg negotiated with the Bolivian government to convey lands around Lake Chalalan to the people of San Jose. The international nonprofit organization Conservation International (CI) sent two people to live in San Jose and to work with villagers on generating ideas for sustainable development. After quickly learning to understand site plans and sketches, the villagers settled upon the notion of developing an ecological preserve and lodge within the rainforest.

In 1995, CI invited Design Workshop to visit San Jose. After a one-week reconnaisance trip, the firm created a 37-page report analyzing the concept of an ecolodge, presenting a schematic master plan and an architectural program for cabins, a common building, housing, trails and landsape. The Ecolodge at Chalalan presented an entirely new type of challenge for the Landscape Architects: to create an environmental facility that would accomodate only a few people, while providing a major economic boost for the people of San Jose.

Led by President Kurt Culbertson and Landscape Architect John Suarez, a native Bolivian, the Design Workshop team created a master plan, a detailed site plan, and schematic drawings for more than 20 buildings and trails. The plan oriented around a representation of a Quechua (pre-Incan language) symbol set into the ground to provide a "compass" for experiencing the jungle. Cabins will be elevated on 2-or 3-foot stilts to provide safety, avoid flooding, capture breezes and offer views to the water. The plan proposes to replant cleared areas with native trees. In addition, it includes a kitchen garden, places to grown and pick native fruits, and an outdoor cooking area. The site also includes a biological research and data-collection station.

The people of San Jose are building the Ecolodge themselves. The complex will provide a new ecotourism destination for Bolivia, whose Madidi region remains one of the most diverse and pristine places left in the Amazon. Also, the ecolodge should help improve the lives of local peoples while showing them that environmental preservation, not destruction, holds a key to their economic future. lasn

Photos provided courtesy of Design Workshop.