Minority Voice in Community Design Building Processes

An old lady's words during the building process of a participatory design with a community: "But this is what we thought might be ideal?" Versus her husband, a construction worker: "But this is the way it should be done!" When dealing with participatory design processes sometimes the opinion of the experts are the ones always honoured and the minorities, not in quantity but in voice, are underestimated. This paper is based on a case study of three different design processes taken place on the rural community of San Jose de Olaes- Ecuador, dealing with the importance of the voice of the minority, in this case represented by the women of a community, and the men's voice, usually the working force. We will illustrate this process and how it has both positive and negative consequences on the project and community relationships.