"ee-ka-waa"...
... is a beautiful bird chant of this region that has inspired us since we arrived to the Valley of San Blas. When written, we saw that "ekawa" is the palindrome of "awake" - an invitation to awaken to a new form of living, in symbiosis with nature.
WHAT IS EKAWA
Ekawa is at once a territory, a dream and a life-project, which embodies a passion for living in symbiosis with nature. This is a place where sculptural architecture and bamboo craftsmanship meet the arts of personal and planetary healing, through ecological regeneration, creation of edible forests, expansion of bamboo groves, spiritual practices, and a general tone of opening towards insight and wholeness.
There are three outward facing initiatives through which Ekawa creates and recreates itself:
* The Bamboo Village
* The Bamboo Lab
* The Bamboo Sanctuary
Ekawa is always evolving and looking to connect with new co-creators and collaborators. If you are interested in collaborating with us, do not hesitate to contact us, especially around the topics of alternative education, bamboo grove regeneration and leading lifestyle experiences.
Eleanor McIntyre
co-founder
Since studying to be an architect at the Universities of Manchester and Bath, I have been exploring how our built surroundings can facilitate in us a heightened sense of aliveness. After working at various British architecture practices such as Feilden Clegg Bradley, this search took me to participate at Arcosanti, an ‘urban laboratory’ in Arizona and then to work at the practice ‘Natural Architecture’, South Africa, where I relished in the subtlety of designing with the formative geometries of nature. Returning to the UK became a deep inner journey of converting a van as a mobile home for the practice of on-site architecture combined with an exploration of frugality. These ideas to do with the art of living and design-build architecture are evolving everyday as, through the Ekawa project, we connect with the wildness of nature, the beauty of the creative process and the wholeness of the human condition.
Sergio Pineda
co-founder
Before the Ekawa project, I was an architect, academic and researcher based in the UK, where I lived for 18 years. I first went there to study architecture at the Architectural Association in London, and afterewards I worked at Foster + Partners and other practices. From 2009 I led research and teaching projects, mainly at Cardiff University, and also at the Architectural Association. As a design researcher I collaborated with artists and scientists including choreographers, musicians, hydrologists and crystallographers. A number of life-transforming experiences made me question my own dharma, and where it intersects with world dharma. This led to the co-founding of the Ekawa project in the Colombian rainforest, in a wild space of purpose, where humans thrive in symbiosis with nature.
HOW EKAWA BEGAN
Ekawa was born in 2018 with a vision to create a new normal. It has roots in a sense of adventure, creativity, nature and imagining what it means to thrive. Experiencing the everyday as a magical reality is a founding principle that transforms normality into a space of aliveness and vibrancy. A spiritual intention with a tone that relates to anthroposophy and a yogic way of life grounds our intentions.
Ekawa began as a feeling when Elle and Sergio met in the UK and discovered that each was on a journey of exploration, asking deep questions about how they could live in the world. They wanted to understand how the act of living itself could become a space for personal transformation, where nature and the human condition can thrive in synergy with one another. They came to San Blas during an exploration of the land of Sergio’s grandfather. Sleeping in a tree-tent, they heard the calling of the land, inviting them to connect with the fullness of living in nature.
This was the start of a 4-year pioneering phase - an immersion in bamboo construction, reforestation techniques, and understanding life in the wild. The dream to create a Bamboo Village emerged when friends and guests began asking how they too could live in this way. The Bamboo Lab has been a formative part of the process of creating the built forms of Ekawa, opening at specific moments to share the experience with those who are passionate to learn. The Bamboo Sanctuary is an expression of a founding impulse of Ekawa - the desire to share experiences about how it feels to be fully alive, fully awake.
Ekawa has become a place to live, a place to create and a place to grow. It is a place of coming together, of collaboration between local craftspeople, those staying in Ekawa, the neighbourhood of San Blas and participants from across the world.