Talking of architecture and sustainability in Peru is something very complex. We have 28 of the 32 climates that exist in the planet that makes our country very unique in terms of having almost every ecosystem in the world. We could have the posibility of taking advantage of the diversity we have but in practice that doesn’t happened at all.
In Peruvian society what is pretty sells, the peculiarities of a building, shape or aesthetics end up being the model to follow, the problem is that beauty and “modernity” of a building is not always link to comfort or environmental protection. Developers follow the same trends without thinking in the welfare of population. It is important that sustainablity does not become a trend to follow, but to people became aware of the value that this represent and be implemented in the market.
Lima city has more than 8 million of inhabitants and it´s still growing. The construction industry it’s been growing since 2006 and 30% of Peruvian population lives in Lima. That expansion is been really good for developers but it’s been divided in formal and informal sector. Therefore some of the buildings are built with minimal quality controls. There is a need to develop a sustainable construction policy that is integrated with environmental and social policies. I think a big aspect will be to show them that sustainability is not necessary uglier or expensive.
The last few years sustainability concept it’s been re-introduced in Peruvian architecture. I said re-introduce because formerly construction was sustainable in an environmental way. Materials were extracted from near places and lots of the ancient techniques are still in use in mostly rural areas of Peru (like adobe bricks) and they been developing this techniques for years. I believe we still have a long way to go when talking about sustainability in Peru, but as long as people is aware they will give sustainability enough value to become not only a trend but to be and starting point for the future development of the cities.