Remote Research Station

“Green houses don’t have to look like they were built by beavers. And you don’t have to be a weirdo to live in one.”—Rick Joy, quoted in The Nature of Green Architecture

Aguacate, Ecuador.

A remote research station for bio-forestry and local conservation along on a newly cut road through the cloud forest at the foot of the Andes. The station provides research and outreach facilities, and houses researchers and volunteers.

Aguacate is a village of seventy inhabitants located between Chigulinda and Gualaquiza on a recently completed gravel-base road. The town boasts several small shops, a small square and volleyball court, a hospedaje, and a school including a chapel. Houses are primarily two-story wood frame houses with tin roofs. Electric service is provided only at night. Bus access is once a day. Aguacate is renown for and ‘good fiestas at Christmas & New Years, and a carnival in February.’ The hospedaje proprietor Sr. Jorge Guillermo Vasquez, serves coffee & popcorn for breakfast.