THE BIGGEST ANIMAL SHELTER IN LATIN AMERICA

{HATUN SHED}

Location: 3,770 m.a.s.l.  / Area: 2,048  m2 / Cost: approx. US$. 26,000

It might not look like much, but this building saves hundreds of animal lives and helps sustain an entire community. It’s also functional, inexpensive and built entirely out of locally sourced materials.

Today we are all in search of perfect sustainable architecture and there is an increasing trend for using expensive and sometimes elaborate techniques praised as ‘eco-solutions’ in buildings, but not many of these intricate ideas yield the palpable results the planet so desperately needs. Sometimes we get caught in the trend and we ignore the basic principles of what makes a building sustainable. Simple utilitarian building concepts like this one in Peru can teach us a great deal about how to truly carry out simple sustainable ideas in buildings.

In one of the highest points of Canta (in the Andes of Peru some 60 miles N.E. of Lima), the government recently inaugurated a building that is helping save thousands of animal lives. How many buildings these days can claim to produce such immediate ecological results?

The largest animal shed in Latin America, now houses 2,200 adult sheep and Alpacas and benefits around 110 families in the area. The main function of the shed is to protect the cattle  from adverse tundra weather while increasing productivity and benefiting the local community. The locals depend on the cattle for their wool & meat; A beautiful cycle that is well complimented through sustainable agriculture programs and permaculture planning.

Since 2006, the Peruvian Ministry of Agriculture through its AgroRural Program has boosted the construction of 18,367 similar sheds in 20 regions of Peru.  A remarkable ecological effort worth highlighting.

It proves that simple, utilitarian, sustainable architecture can save Animal lives.

What did you think of the shed?

Do you know of similar projects in your area with innovative sustainable solutions?

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