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This is the page of types, or vernacular repetitive (or recurrent) structures. This means, different structures that follow a common pattern in one or several elements, including form, decoration, purpose, use of space, structural or building system, etcetera. As a way of example, the scheme on top shows three different types, a Victorian house, a Samoan fale tele and a hip roof type of the Lao countryside.
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You are in: Ethnoarch Home » Types Home » Tui’que Huë’e
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Tui’que Huë’e
Ecuador, Colombia, Peru

Description
Image of this type
The Tui'que Huë'e is the oldest documented type built by the Secoya (Sieco_pai), a group whose major concentration of speakers reside in Ecuador. This is an extended-family house that displays many of the features that anthropologists have described as typical of the malocas or big Amazonian houses, houses related to an economy of hunting, gathering and slash-and-burn horticulture. There is only one house per settlement and this is to be semi-temporarily occupied, for up to 15 years. After this period of time, or whenever the food resources around begin to scarce, the house is abandoned and the family group moves to another place, located no less than one walking day away from the previous structure.

The Tui'que Huë'e is made entirely out of materials of organic (vegetal) origin, such as raw wood poles, palm fronds and tying vines. There is no stone, iron or leather in the structure. Added to that, there are no covering floor layers; the soil surface flattens and gains a sort of natural finish after some use. As a way of protection from intruders, the house is built usually hidden in the forest, with some minor structures or tambos around. These are used as temporary cottages for ritual or healing activities. The house is oriented east west.

As for its general aspect, the Tui'que Huë'e's plan is rectangular with semi octagonal endings. An inherent and strong sense of geometry is apparent in the house's construction. However, geometry in the scale of detail is not exact. The Huë'e's is geometry by approximation, because the building materials are used with very little modification (i.e. no pre-dimensioned sawn wood beams). The roof is significantly steep, with slopes of about 42 degrees in its long section and a little more in each of the octagonal ends' triangular forming segments. Rafters' lower ends start at a noticeably low height, only 1.35 meters (4 feet 5 inches) above the soil level. Due to that, the wall is partially covered by the roof's thatched palm fronds.

The door is remarkably small, only 1.25 meters (4 feet one inch) high. But it is also remarkably narrow, being only 0.30 meters (1 foot) wide. Both the door's dimensions and the fact that it is located in an inconspicuous place away from the main geometrical axes, seem to confirm that there exists a concern for security in the building of the house.

The Tui'que Huë'e has no windows at all. The only openings other than the diminutive door are two tiny triangular skylights at each ending of the house's ridge pole (right by the geometric center of the semi-octagons). As for the walls, the house has no internal walls. Besides, the external ones could be better described as a fence, formed by sticks of around 2 inches in diameter and separated about one inch from one another.

Because of the slope and scale of the roof, the skylights, the lack of windows and the minimal door, as well as the lack of internal walls and the semi-transparency of the external ones, the Tui'que Huë'e is naturally and effectively insulated from the usually high rainforest temperatures.

Given that the house is basically a big shell covering an empty space, the walking, sleeping, cooking, and invoking areas are more defined by social conventions than they are by physical separations. Both space and structure have highly symbolical connotations; the central space, for instance, is to remain empty, and the house's main beams recall mythical stories of Ñañë, the moon and Secoya main deity, as he struggles with an imposter god.

As of the summer 2003, the model in the picture was apparently the only example of this house that was currently standing, and was already undergoing serious deterioration.

Other names Piojé House (Günter Tessmann)
Related groups Secoya
Date of building Unknown, until approx. 1940s. A few isolated models built since.
Area - Dimensions Approx. 160 square meters (16x10 meters)

Key images
Key image number 1
Plan view
Key image number 2
Side view
Key image number 3
Three-dimensional
Key image number 4
Detail

Building Aspects
Materials Palm thatch, woods
Structure - Structural system Compression, flexion
Technology - Building system
Techniques - Techniques used
Methodology Group

Morphological Aspects
Roof type Conical
Symmetry Axial
Building form
Building context

Environmental Aspects
Climate Tropical
Topography - landscape Flat
Population context Rural
Enclosure - Property delimiter None

Classification
Keywords Ecuador  Colombia  Mobile Architecture  Sacred Architecture  Clay  Mud  Compression  Flexion  Favorites  
Categories domestic architecture, sacred architecture, mobile architecture
Related types Pa'pa Huë'e, Zinc House
Sub-types
Models See models

References
Bibliographic references
No references in English at this time.
Online references
Internal
(Articles on Ethnoarch.com) 		No references in English at this time.
External
(Articles on the Web) 		No references in English at this time.
Related news
Discussion See members' discussion and contributions on this type.
Questions Ask a question about this type in the forum.
For academic purposes, please cite this page as:
Arboleda, Gabriel. Tui’que Huë’e [online]. Berkeley, CA: Ethnoarchitecture.com, 23 November 2005 [cited 23 November 2008]. Available from World Wide Web: <http://www.Ethnoarchitecture.com/web/types/type/404>.
 
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