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Thank you so much. Today our guest is Daniel Pata and our topic is Return to the Origin Using Earth for the future. Daniel is a Colombian architect and was born in Socorro Centadar, a small town with a rich history. He is the leader of the Rammed Earth Collective, an international design build collaborative advancing earthen architecture. His practice blends traditional tapia posada with contemporary design to create low carbon place rooted buildings through Ciudad Insecto Estudio and Rammed Earth Columbia. Daniel designs, documents and teaches earth and construction across Latin America. His work focus on craft, climate resilience and dignified housing that grows from the colors and the soils of each site. Daniel, welcome to AwarePreneurs.

Thanks for having me, Paul. It's a pleasure for me. I hope that you can understand my English. I'm trying to speak slowly and fluid as well.

Your English is so much better than my Spanish. I wish my Spanish was that good. Daniel. And let's do a big shout out. This episode came from a big shout out to the Medellin contingent. I was in Medellin this summer and we did a great impact meetup there and just my brother Craig Zelizer and sister in law Catalina Rojas lived there and they put on an impact meetup and one thing led to another. Somebody, Oscar, we see you. Big shout out introduced us and when I heard about your work, I couldn't wait to have you on the show.

But a big shout out to everybody who's doing amazing things in Colombia.

Thank you. Thank you. Medellin, it's beautiful. I love Medellin. I'm from Socorro Santander and I work in Barichara for the last 21 years. But Medellin, I love Medellin, you know, it's an amazing city, the people. It's incredible. Yeah, it's beautiful.

It's beautiful, beautiful.

So, Daniel, talk to us a little bit about your origin story. What first got you interested in Rammed Earth as the medium for your social impact? And how did that lead to forming the Rammed Earth Collective?

Okay, well, I discovered the Ram Earth when I finished my stories in architecture. A friend of my parents asked me about if I want. I know the Tapia Pisada. It's the name in Spanish for the ramp earth I said, yes, I'm the best architect, the best around earth architect. But I didn't knew the technique. I saw the antiques houses town Socorro, but in the university I saw antique constructions. But sometimes the students just want still, you know, the modernisms and forget some of that part of the our culture, our beginners, our traditions. But I said, yeah, I.

I went to the library, I take a copy from a book for Gernot Mine. Como construiren tierra. It's the name in Spanish. He's a German architect. And I wrote the book and went to Barichara in a bus and I saw three guys close to the road run it a small wall. And I said, hey guys, you can teach me about that technique. And they said, of course, give me your, your shoes. And just put in the, the, the, the fits in the, in the, in the earth.

And some in my head make a click, you know. And I work for, with them for the, for one month. I think it's so beautiful. My beginners in. In ram earth.