{"id":28125,"date":"2026-04-08T17:11:59","date_gmt":"2026-04-08T23:11:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/interventions\/the-oasis-as-method-reading-territorial-intelligence-of-yucatan\/"},"modified":"2026-04-08T19:09:49","modified_gmt":"2026-04-09T01:09:49","slug":"the-oasis-as-method-reading-territorial-intelligence-of-yucatan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/history-and-culture\/the-oasis-as-method-reading-territorial-intelligence-of-yucatan\/","title":{"rendered":"The oasis as method: reading territorial intelligence of Yucat\u00e1n"},"content":{"rendered":"

In <\/span>The oasis as a methodology: reading the territorial intelligence of Yucat\u00e1n<\/b>, Joseline Sierra Montero and Marwa Ridoini invite us on a journey through the history of the \u201coasis\u201d concept to discover how the ancient Maya created spaces of balance and life that still defy time\u2014teaching us an ancestral lesson in design and community that is more relevant today than ever.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The oasis as a territorial intelligence is a way of organizing life in relation to scarcity,<\/span> distance, and collective survival that has operated for centuries: for 7000 years in the case<\/span> of <\/span>oases in the southeast of Morocco. What follows are extracts from it, a set of structural codes, a<\/span> matrix that could be used for thinking about how we inhabit territory differently. Each code<\/span> isolates one principle at work in the oasis and reframes it as a lens applicable elsewhere.<\/span> There are ways of reading a territory and asking what logics, visible or buried, are making the<\/span> territory.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

1. Insularity<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span>The oasis exists as a distinct world within a hostile environment. It is defined by its edges, its<\/span> difference from what surrounds it. Code: It proposes un contretemps, un contre-espace<\/span>1<\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

2. Network<\/span><\/p>\n

No oasis survives alone. It exists within long-distance routes of exchange, trade,<\/span> migration, and knowledge. Code: the network is a thinking system, a project. The possibility of<\/span> designing networks.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"

Fotograf\u00eda izquierda\/ Left photography: \u00cdcono de insularidad \/ Insularity icon
Fotografia derecha\/ Right photography: \u00cdcono de red \/ Network icon
Ilustraciones \/ Illustrations: Marwa Ridoini<\/p><\/div>\n

3. Equilibrium<\/span><\/p>\n

The oasis is a calibrated system \u2014 built form, water, agriculture production exist in precise<\/span> balance. If one thing changes, the other elements have to adjust, or else the oasis will die.<\/span> Code: every element of a settlement exists in conscience relationship to the others.<\/span><\/p>\n

4. Commons<\/span><\/p>\n

Resources in an oasis are collectively managed through negotiation. This governance<\/span> shapes everything \u2014 architecture, clothing, learning, and social structure. Code: resource<\/span> management is not only infrastructure, but it\u2019s also culture.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

5. Visibility<\/span><\/p>\n

The water canals (seguia) run through the streets. The logic of the system is not hidden \u2014<\/span> it is legible in the everyday built environment. Code: a settlement should make its operating<\/span> logic visible to its inhabitants.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Fotograf\u00eda izquierda\/Left photography: \u00cdcono de equilibrio \/ Balance icon
Fotograf\u00eda central\/Central photography: \u00cdcono de comunes \/Commons icon
Fotograf\u00eda derecha\/Right photography: Visibilidad: Sistema de canales de agua (acequias\/seguia) que estructuran el oasis y hacen visible su funcionamiento \/ Visibility: A system of water channels (irrigation ditches\/drainage canals) that structures the oasis and makes its functioning visible
Ilustraciones\/Illustrations: Marwa Ridoini<\/p><\/div>\n

Proposing une \u201creparation \u00e0 l\u2019habitation colonial through the oasis methodology of existing in the desert, Mexican Context.\u00a0<\/b><\/p>\n

In Historias del M\u00e9xico agrario, John Tutino explains that Mexico functioned as an agrarian society from the beginnings of agriculture until the mid-20th century. Most people lived from subsistence, with surplus production supporting elites. This long-term condition produced territorial systems based on self-sufficiency, comparable to the logic of the oasis.<\/span><\/p>\n

Pre-Hispanic Maya settlements were organized around this principle: a close relationship between habitation, agriculture, and cosmology. Like the oasis, they operated as balanced systems where resources, space, and social organization were interdependent.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Oasis maya antes de la colonizaci\u00f3n \/ Mayan oasis before colonization
Ilustraci\u00f3n\/Illustration: Joseline Sierra<\/p><\/div>\n

With the Spanish conquest, this system was transformed by the imposition of the grid, formalized through the Leyes de Indias. In regions such as Yucat\u00e1n, where resistance was strong and prolonged, this transformation did not erase local practices but reconfigured them. As noted by Aldo Rossi, the destruction of existing faits urbains aimed at cultural replacement, yet in practice, adaptation prevailed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At the residential scale, the introduction of solar, a standardized parcel within the grid, reframed this territorial logic. As studied by Javier Caballero, the Maya solar remained a productive and ecological unit, integrating agriculture, biodiversity, and daily life.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Oasis maya despu\u00e9s de la colonizaci\u00f3n \/ Mayan oasis after colonization Ilustraci\u00f3n \/ Illustration: Joseline Sierra<\/p><\/div>\n

In this context, the oasis is suggested as an idea to think of alternative ways of inhabiting the parcel and the urban block. The configuration of buildings along the edges leaves a vegetated interior, maintaining a collective and productive landscape. This persistence of vegetation within the grid reveals the survival of a territorial intelligence rooted in balance, commons, and adaptation; core principles of the oasis.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Funcionamiento del oasis maya despu\u00e9s de la colonizaci\u00f3n \/ Functioning of the mayan oasis after colonization Ilustraci\u00f3n\/ Illustration: Joseline Sierra<\/p><\/div>\n

The oasis as a geographical condition can be proposed as a conceptual tool. Its principles: insularity, network, equilibrium, commons, and visibility can be traced across different contexts, including colonial Yucat\u00e1n. There, despite imposed urban forms, local practices adapted and survived, transforming the grid into a new kind of oasis at the scale of the solar and the block.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Metodolog\u00eda de oasis: interior de manzana en Yucat\u00e1n con vegetaci\u00f3n central resultado de la adaptaci\u00f3n a la ret\u00edcula colonia l\/ Oasis Methodology: interior of a city block in Yucat\u00e1n with central vegetation resulting from adaptation to the colonial grid
Ilustraci\u00f3n\/Illustration: Marwa Ridoini<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Bibliography<\/b><\/p>\n

    \n
  • Caballero, Javier. \u201cMaya Homegardens: Past, Present and Future.\u201d In <\/span>Tropical<\/span> Homegardens<\/span>, editado por K. Landauer and M. Brazil, 35\u201354. Tokyo: United Nations University<\/span> Press, 1992.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Foucault, Michel. \u201cLes H\u00e9t\u00e9rotopies.\u201d Radio lecture, France Culture, December 7, 1966.<\/span> Publicado en <\/span>Le corps utopique, Les h\u00e9t\u00e9rotopies<\/span>. Paris: \u00c9ditions Lignes, 2009.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Foucault, Michel. \u201cDes espaces autres.\u201d Lecture at the Cercle d\u2019\u00e9tudes architecturales,<\/span> 14 de marzo, 1967. Publicado en <\/span>Architecture, Mouvement, Continuit\u00e9<\/span>, no. 5 (octubre 1984):<\/span> 46\u201349. Tambi\u00e9n publicado en <\/span>Dits et \u00e9crits<\/span>, vol. IV. Paris: Gallimard, 1994.<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Garc\u00eda Targa, Juan. \u201cArquitectura colonial temprana en el \u00e1rea maya: registro material y<\/span> documentaci\u00f3n escrita.\u201d 2006.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • LibreTexts. \u201cThe Decline of the Maya.\u201d Consultado el 20 de marzo de 2026.<\/span> https:\/\/human.libretexts.org\/Bookshelves\/History\/World_History\/Early_World_Civilizations_(L<\/span> umen)\/12:_Civilizations_in_the_Americas\/12.06:_The_Decline_of_the_Maya.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Maarouf, N. <\/span>Lecture de l\u2019espace oasien<\/span>. Paris, 1980.<\/span>
    \n<\/span><\/li>\n
  • Meunie, J.-D. <\/span>Architecture et habitat de Dad\u00e8s: Maroc pr\u00e9saharien<\/span>. Paris: Librairie<\/span> Klincksieck, 1973.<\/span> Meunie, J.-D. Architecture et habitat de Dad\u00e8s: Maroc pr\u00e9saharien. Paris: Librairie<\/span> Klincksieck, 1973.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/li>\n
  • \u201cL\u2019Architecture rurale populaire: tradition en p\u00e9ril.\u201d <\/span>Revue africaine d\u2019architecture et<\/span> d\u2019urbanisme a + u <\/span>(1967): 14.<\/span>
    \n<\/span>Rossi, Aldo. L\u2019architecture de la ville. Translated by Fran\u00e7oise Brun. Paris: L\u2019\u00c9querre, 1981.<\/span> Tutino, John. \u201cHistorias del M\u00e9xico agrario.\u201d Historia Mexicana 42, no. 2 (1992): 177\u2013204.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    In The oasis as a methodology: reading the territorial intelligence of Yucat\u00e1n, Joseline Sierra Montero and Marwa Ridoini invite us on a journey through the history of the \u201coasis\u201d concept to discover how the ancient Maya created spaces of balance and life that still defy time\u2014teaching us an ancestral lesson in design and community that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":409,"featured_media":28124,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-28125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-history-and-culture"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/409"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28144,"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28125\/revisions\/28144"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28124"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.landuum.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}