beginning in june 2018, some forty-five students from zurich and lima led by guillaume othenin-girard (ETH zurich) and vincent juillerat (PUCP) worked together to produce a structure in the heart of the archaeological landscape of pachacámac, peru. ‘a room for archaeologists and kids’ project was the culmination of a half-year collaboration between studio tom emerson of d-arch, ETH zurich and taller 5 of the facultad de arquitectura y urbanismo, PUCP lima, at the invitation of denise pozziescot, the director of the museum of pachacámac.
in this new structure, archaeologists make their first examination of artifacts emerging from the digs, shaded from the punishing andean sun and in view of passing visitors and school children, who in turn, perform their own exploration in the sandpits across the courtyard. at each end, new finds are stored in rooms enclosed by woven cane walls before being transferred to the museum for permanent conservation.
the structure was collaboratively designed and constructed by the students in three weeks in june and july, following a joint research project over several months that produced a new topological survey of the territory: the pachacámac atlas.
















project info:
leaders: guillaume othenin-girard (ETHZ), vincent juillerat (PUCP)
team studio tom emerson, ETH zurich: prof. tom emerson, guillaume othenin-girard, boris gusic, christoph junk, larissa muellner, amy perkins, philip shelley, nemanja zimonjic
team taller 5, PUCP, lima: vincent juillerat, renato manrique
students of the department of architecture, ETH zurich: turi colque, lucio crignola, gabriel fiette, shen he, severin jann, jens knöpfel, tamino kuny, sara lazarevic, stefan liniger, juliette martin, david moser, géraldine recker, ellen reinhard, sara sherif
students of the faculty of architecture, PUCP, lima: keicko aliaga, gianmario alva, maria andia, ximena arevalo, valeria armijo, andrea avendaño, sebastian blas, daniela cahuana, martin cevallos, luis miguel enriquez, diana farje, rosa grados, paola medina, arturo meza, andrea montani, nicolle murrugarra, valeria namuche, brigith nuñez, sebastian ortiz de zevallos, milagros ramos, erika ramos, anahy rimachi, diego rojas, brenda salcedo, andrea tezen, angie tipe, carla zegarra
museum of pachacámac team: director dr. denise pozzi-escot, rommel ángeles, janet oshiro rivero, carmen rosa uceda brignole, rocio villar astigueta
engineering: andrea biancardi, chair of structural design, d-arch, ETH zurich
timber construction experts: jonatan egli, francisco otero berta
timber: remasa el pina s.a.c.
groundwork: lbc construcciones sac
scaffolding: ángeles arquitectura de eventos
construction site: ángeles arquitectura de eventos, ceing s.a.c.