DIY eco_machines
II am Jhon F. Arango Arango, and I hold a Master’s degree from ETSAM in Madrid and from UNALmed in Colombia, where I graduated with academic honors.
I trained and worked professionally in Colombia and Spain, earning distinctions such as the publication of my work on the DPA-ETSAM website and a scholarship to collaborate in the ETSAM library’s historical archive, where I conducted research and inventoried documents according to established protocols.
I am an architect and researcher whose work sits at the crossroads of ecological innovation, participatory design, and low-tech fabrication. I specialize in design and construction, with experience across competitions, commissions, projects, and academic research. I uphold the highest standards in every phase of the design and construction process.
My academic and professional interests focus on transforming buildings into active agents of biodiversity through simple, affordable interventions. My work has appeared in print publications, and I have collaborated as an editor for magazine 255.
Guided by principles of reuse and open-source collaboration, I design and test do-it-yourself modules that any community can assemble. From plastic-bottle bioreactors to textile-lined water reservoirs, each prototype embodies affordability, ease of fabrication, and ecological function.
EDEN EDAR proposes the adaptive reuse of Ukraine’s abandoned Duga-3 radar, transforming it into industrial–ecological infrastructure. The site becomes a dual-purpose research hub and embarkation port for preserving and introducing species into at-risk ecosystems, turning architecture into a machine that actively produces and restores nature.
The exceptional conditions and isolation of the exclusion zone offer a living laboratory. Architecture acts as both a protective barrier and a controlled habitat: integrated aviaries can house and monitor native or introduced bird populations, generating crucial data for the study and restoration of local biodiversity.
The proposal integrates accessible, low-cost solutions such as flexible water reservoirs made from high-strength technical textiles, eco-machines for sludge treatment, and biological reactors. This exhibition infrastructure brings the invisible processes of urban water supply closer to citizens, raising awareness of energy consumption and resource management.
DIY eco_machines is the project being proposed, arising as an evolution of EDEN EDAR, aiming to deepen research into eco-productive architectures: buildings capable of generating biological diversity in their surroundings.
The project seeks to map and classify eco-productive architectures across Europe and its neighboring regions.
It will identify eco-buildings that integrate DIY prototypes—devised by architects or users—that implement principles of sustainability and efficiency in both the building and its environment.
Based on this research, a classification methodology will be developed considering the technology employed, the scale of intervention, and the environmental outcomes achieved. This comparative tool will enable the evaluation of strategies, the measurement of impacts, and the extraction of best practices, establishing a reference framework to facilitate the replication of solutions capable of regenerating ecosystems.