Abstract

This article presents the current state, in architectural and construction terms, of the likanantai traditional housing of ten villages around the Salar de Atacama and the Loa River, in the region of Antofagasta, Chile. The main architecture transformations will be analyzed in depth, looking at the villages of Ayquina, Caspana and Toconce as specific cases of study.Here we will evidence the transitions from ancestral architecture and construction practices-based in the exclusive use of natural materials available in the immediate environment, especially the stone-, to the gradual use of industrialized constructive elements, which has led to the diversification of the architecture of the Andean vernacular dwelling, nevertheless, with still subsisting patterns rooted in the way of inhabiting likan antai.