Diseño de Anteproyecto Arquitectónico de una Plaza de Rastro, Guanujo, Guaranda, Bolívar, Ecuador.

Abstract

The Guanujo livestock market has been operating for years in a location that was never meant for it. Sitting in a consolidated residential area, just steps from the Universidad Estatal de Bolívar, the market generates chaos on fair days: heavy trucks, cattle, and neighbors sharing the same space with no infrastructure to manage the flow. There is no biosecurity, no effluent treatment, and the Canton Guaranda Territorial Development Plan 2023-2027 acknowledges this openly by listing the construction of a new livestock market as a strategic cantonal project. The objective was to design the architectural preliminary project for that new market in the Sinchig Sunicocha sector, Guanujo parish, on a 71,126.64 m² plot. The research combined direct observation on fair days, semi-structured interviews using the Delphi method with five stakeholders directly involved in the problem, and documentary analysis. Findings from all three instruments were triangulated to produce design criteria with verifiable support. The preliminary project draws on Frampton's Critical Regionalism and Fontana-Giusti's reading of space as a sanitary device based on Foucault. The architectural concept organizes the site through three circuits that never intersect: heavy vehicle, livestock, and pedestrian-commercial. The program includes 64 species-differentiated corral modules, an independent-access quarantine zone with a slaughterhouse and veterinary area, an administrative zone, a commercial corridor with 25 stands, 12 food stalls, and a Child Development Center. The results confirmed that certifiable biosecurity and local identity are not mutually exclusive. A market that meets AGROCALIDAD standards can still be the community gathering space that the Guanujo fair has always been.