In the mountainous regions of central Guatemala, mega-infrastructure projects such as hydroelectric dams lead to the forced displacement of local, Mayan farming communities.

Protests against such projects continue to claim the lives of dozens of indigenous activists. This project imagines an alternative reality in which one such dam is constructed and reclaimed by local people as a site of pilgrimage and memorial to the lives lost.

The new dam structure provides a stage for the performance of rituals and festivities whose degree of transience relates to the Mayan calendar. Both the architecture and the scenes that unfold within its walls take inspiration from ancient Mayan mythology and the magical realist novellas of writer, Miguel Ángel Asturias.

Its architectural forms incorporate elements that reflect the country’s mixed cultural heritage: from robust Mayan temples to elaborately ornamented baroque churches and the carefully crafted, sculptural design of contemporary Mesoamerica. The building is shaped by the passage of time, the flow of water and human activity in a manner that contrasts the traditionally inexorable structure of a dam.