Lecture Response: Ephemerality as Foundation

Response to Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse: “Permanence and Instability”

Returning to Lima after two decades of practice in Paris, Sandra Barclay and Jean Pierre Crousse embraced the uncertainty of their new context. Memory was what drew them back to Peru: as a robust counterweight to instability, it urges them to tell the story of the land and its people. Not only do Barclay & Crousse’s projects reflect memories of the past, they also invite new memories to take root—as in the UDEP lecture building, where a tree planting initiative allows students to form bonds with the place.

Memory is also anchored in their building methods. Glass bottles set into walls, hand-placed mosaic walkways, and carefully stacked stone give buildings a character that can only emerge from close collaboration with seasoned workers rooted in local traditions.

However, this kind of work also comes with costs, like energy, time, labor, and informal working conditions. Such costs are felt throughout the project, and most deeply by the communities working on site. It’s hard not to think of the builders working day in, day out with salt-resistant reddish pozzolan cement on the exposed concrete, bare-handed in the desert sun when looking at the beautiful plaster wall of the Paracas Museum. Hand-applied cement finishing is no easy task, and the mixing requires precision and a steady hand. The traces of their steady hands are what make the building truly unique. Without them, there would be no building. While informality benefits the project, does it benefit the builders?