Materia y penumbra: Una arquitectura en el desierto

This text addresses the study of the architectural devices that characterize the habitat of the Wayúu community located on Colombia's La Guajira peninsula, in order to relate the symbolic value of their habitat contained in their domestic spaces, associated with rituals and myths, to draw some elements and forms contained in their architectures and understand aspects of their value as carriers of meanings. An inventory was built describing and reflecting on each of these devices, their daily uses and rituals, formal configurations and mythical background, which make up a simple but efficient architecture, with technical parameters that deserve to be counted and protected by their rich cultural content; data that was collected through field studies and interviews. Understanding the worth of heritage not as a liability of nostalgia, but as an asset of memory.