Event Description
This presentation will discuss the transformations of material culture around the woven palm in construction in the Northwestern Amazon, and future building technology in that region. Material productions, value perspectives, and scalability of the thatched palm cultures in the Western Amazon, along with the substantial political and economic international and local agendas that have led to its quasi-eradication in the 20th century, and developments in recent decades will be at the center of this discussion.
This event is part of the CLACS series Novedades/Lançamentos: New Scholarship @ Berkeley. This series highlights new work from Berkeley scholars about Latin America and the Caribbean by inviting a faculty member to discuss their recent work with colleagues.
Speaker
Maria Paz Gutierrez is Professor of Architecture at UC Berkeley and the director of BerkeleyConnect. She is an innovator in the intersection of architecture, materials engineering, and science, exploring materials invention from nano to building scales. In 2008 she founded BIOMS, centered on materials innovation in regions under severe water stress and flooding. Gutierrez has developed extensive work in the Americas on advancing sustainability, health, and equity in construction innovation in remote zones such as the Northwestern Amazon. She is a recipient of numerous science and design awards, including the 2024 Bakar Prize, the 2024 National Science Convergence Award, the 2010 National Science Foundation, the 2012 Fulbright Nexus Award. Additionally, she was a semifinalist for the Royal Institute of British Architects 2020 President’s Medal of Research Award (Climate Change/shortlisted), and for the Buckminster Fuller Award. Her research has been published in leading scientific and architecture journals including Science and has three provisional patents in materials innovation and building technology. Gutierrez’s creative work has been exhibited in prestigious museums including the 2025 Venice Architectural Bienale and the Bienal de Sao Paulo. She holds a Doctorate of Philosophy in Building Science/Materials Engineering from the University of Cambridge and a Master of Architecture from the University of Pennsylvania.