[bright upbeat music] - My name's Philippe Simay, I'm a philosopher and I'm interested in what architecture can tell us about our lifestyles.

I'll take you to explore some of the most remarkable habitats on the planet, in order to discover their meaning and to share their riches.

[calm music] Today, my travels take me to Peru, to the middle of Lake Titicaca.

I've always dreamed of seeing this mythical place, the cradle of the Inca civilization.

Covering 8,300 square kilometers and perched at 3,800 meters above sea level, it is located in the Andes between Peru and Bolivia.

[upbeat music] This island sea has served as a refuge for one of the most ancient peoples we can trace to this region, the Uros.

Chased from the lake shores by conquerors such as the Aymaras in the 12th century, then the Incas and finally the Spanish in the 17th century, most of the Uros were finally assimilated into Aymara culture and remained on dry land.

But some to avoid a life of slavery, took refuge on one of the artificial islands in the middle of the lake.

They're the ones I want to meet.

I want to find out the singular lifestyle of these inhabitants and their masterpieces of floating architecture.

But above all, I want to understand the reasons that keep them apart from civilization and its riches.

After more than one hour in a boat, I meet Aurelio on Titino, one of the 36 islands still inhabited.

[boat engine roaring] - Great.

[reefs croak] Hello, how are you?

- Hello, Aurelio, thanks for inviting me.

This is incredible.

- We live on this island, it looks small, but it's big.

We've lived here for 15 years.

Welcome to the Uros Island of Titino.

- Thank you.

- There are six families living here.

That's 23 people, including the children.

This is how we live.

[reefs croak] - What are we walking on?

- You're walking on totora.

- What is totora?

- It's a plant that grows everywhere on the lake.

You see over there, that plant in the distance is totora.

We cut it down and bring it here, and that's what you're walking on.

Nice, isn't it?

- It's quite funny.

[laughs] And it's wild to think we're floating here.

- Yes, we're floating.

It moves, see?

- Yes, you can see it's moving, especially at the edges.

[soft music] How do you live on this soft ground which ripples at the water's edge and is no more than 350 square meters?

[soft music] For centuries, the Uros have chosen to live here, mainly from fishing and hunting wild birds.

[soft music] You must explain to me Aurelio because I really don't get it.

How does this float and more to the point, how does it hold together?

- It's because it's made of totora and khili.

It has a floating thickness of two and a half meters.

Look, Philippe, this is khili.

The totora roots are in the khili.

Here you see that's what floats, the island is made up of three pieces of khili.

We must tie the three pieces together with a rope and put a wooden stake at each corner.

We begin by tying it like this, here and here, like this and here and then we finish up.

Now it looks like just one platform.

- So the khili makes up the base which enables you to anchor the island, but how do you lay out the totora?

- The first week we bring the first layer.

This is a maraya, which is an assembly of totora.

We pull out 10 marayas like this, then we cross them with 10 more marayas, one, two, three, up to 10 marayas.

And the third week we begin again on the other side, it takes three weeks work.

- And is the khili heavy enough to prevent the island from drifting?

- The khili floats so we need a safety system and that's our anchor.

The anchorage is the most important, that way the islands stay permanently in one spot.

Without the anchors, the island could drift with the wind, perhaps as far as Bolivia, who knows.

That's why we've put seven anchorage points around the island.

- I see you have solar panels, I didn't expect to see any here.

What do you use them for?

- The solar panels give us some light in the evening.

Before, we'd use candles, but that was very dangerous for us.

Five or six years ago, all the houses burned down.

The whole island burned, we didn't buy them, they were a gift, that's why we have solar panels.

Sit down there and I'll sit here.

This is Olga.

- Hello, Olga.

- You see, Philippe, this is our job.

We must ready our nets to catch a few fish.

- Olga, do you disentangle nets every day?

- Yes, Philippe, we must sort out our nets every day and the children help.

- It's not easy, you have to have the knack.

- You're doing very well.

- I'm not a natural, but I apply myself.

- I'll help you a bit.

- Here on the island, you are very isolated.

Do you see this as a constraint or as a form of freedom?

- It was our grandparents who chose this place and who created this island and lived here.

Nobody has authority over us.

Our only constraints are wind and water, they're the only ones.

It can happen that the wind or the swell suddenly takes a piece of the island, that does sometimes worry us.

But when a lake is calm, we really feel at peace.

- Being on this island is to experience a kind of timelessness.

The simplicity of the elements gives us a feeling of eternity.

The vast lake that carries us, the mountains in the distance that circle the horizon and the protective sky form a hole, within which we feel sheltered and in our place.

[soft music] The totora directly determines where their island sits.

This is found near a zone of 25,000 hectares covered with the rushes that occupy most of the bay.

- We're on the path, this is the route.

- We can see all the places you've cut the totora.

- Yes, it's already growing again.

We cut all along here.

- Further up?

- Yes.

- Do you come here to cut to totora every day?

- No, but right now it's the rainy season, the island becomes very humid.

We can't even sit down to disentangle our nets.

So we come and cut the totora every other week.

And if it's too wet, we come at weekly intervals.

We constantly lay down a new carpet, add layers and layers.

We have to cut all the time and we also need it for the roof and the walls.

We cut for three or four hours.

It isn't easy and you can eat it too, it's called chullo.

[crunches] - It's very tender.

- Tastes good?

[laugh] - Not bad at all.

What fascinates me is that totora is a plant that is central to your life.

It's the island floor, the walls and the roofs of your houses.

It's your main activity and it's also part of your diet.

- If it wasn't for totora, we'd have no home, we'd have no island.

Totora is the most important thing.

[soft music] We'll transport this as a maraya, not on the boat.

We'll tie it with the rope and drag it.

- The harvested roots will be used to maintain the island.

In fact, an island has a shelf life of no more than 40 years and requires a heavy duty annual service.

[soft music] For the Uros, totora is much more than just a plant.

It's a way of life at the heart of a natural ecosystem, upon which they are totally dependent.

Without it, not only would their habitat disappear but also their territory, their knowhow and their culture.

[calm music] [speaking in foreign language] [reefs croak] [children grunt] The Uros are part and parcel of an inhabited area where man and nature are not in opposition, but are harmoniously balanced.

[birds chirp] [child cries] Early in the morning, everyone is already busy smoking fish caught during the night.

It is placed between two levels of stones heated by totora obviously.

Fishing is becoming more and more complex on the lake and the fish are disappearing.

The pollution caused by the mining industry is to blame, of course, but the main reason is the fact that hundreds of thousands of farmers have now turned to fishing in the bay, depriving the Uros of their means of subsistence.

[gentle music] Just like every week, Aurelio and Olga go to the village of Llachon to trade their fish for vegetables or for a little money with which to buy gas.

On the lake shore, we find architecture typical of the Adobe-Style houses, that is, made of bricks of dried clay.

It is an effective ally against the cold wind from the Altiplano, the high Andean plateau.

This is Llachon's market square?

- Yes, this is a square in Llachon.

This is where we'll barter.

[murmuring] - It's hard to believe that this is market day, as the villagers go about their business with calm and serenity, addressing us wordlessly to buy food.

- Philippe, you can give the lady her fish.

- How many, eight, eight?

- For a kilo, you must give eight fish.

- Three, four, five, six, seven, eight.

- You can give her one more.

- And a little one.

- Thank you.

You must always give a little more, that's what business is about.

- How is the bartering going?

- We've traded for beans, potatoes and chuno, which is dried potatoes.

The bartering is going well today.

Philippe, you can give the lady one more fish.

- I give her one more?

- Yes.

- That one?

[all laugh] Okay, that one was too small.

Have you ever thought of leaving your island to come and live here?

- I'd like to live in an Adobe house, because on the Uros islands, it's cold, especially at night.

It's not like that in an Adobe house, it's warmer.

That's why I'd like to live here.

- If you came to live here, your whole lifestyle would be transformed.

- I could change and look after a patch of land.

I could learn to work, to grow things.

I could change, I could change my clothes too.

Instead of my hat, I could wear a montera or a jacket like those ladies who came.

Yes, I could adapt.

- Today, your island costs you nothing but if you wanted to move to dry land, you'd have to buy some property and that can be expensive.

- That's right, the land is very expensive.

Here, one square meter costs about 40 euros, maybe more.

We don't have all that money to buy land, that's how it is.

[soft music] - Jose is a historian.

He lives in the region on the lake shore, and for several years, he's been researching the Uros.

He is the memory of this people, whose culture is, as yet little known.

- The little we know about the Uros is a mixture of myth and legend.

There's a myth that tells of how they were the first men created by Wiracocha, the god who created life on the altiplano.

And that, following a flood, they were the only survivors this god saved.

It's interesting to know where they really come from.

And then we have this word Uro, which means morning, as well as men of the dawn or men who don't want to live in civilization, who want to be as free as the beasts in the field.

- Beyond the architectural and climactic constraints, we have a wonderful feeling of freedom when we're on this island.

- This freedom that you talk about, we feel it too.

And I'd like it to continue as it symbolizes life on the altiplano.

To us, the rain, the hail and the extreme cold are not punishments, but blessings of the Pachamama, and we're used to living with them.

These elements don't scare us, on the contrary, we feel that they accompany us like brothers throughout our lives, like divinities that watch over us.

- And who is the Pachamama?

- For us, the Pachamama is mother earth, nature.

Pacha: time, space place.

Mama: generous, good, constant.

She is the most important divinity in Andean theology.

- For me, discovering the island of Titino was simply amazing.

But you live here, have you always known it?

- Yes, it was a surprise for us too to learn that the island of Titino still existed.

It's only been a decade since we began to talk about these Uros who lived on Titino in the true Uro tradition.

- But how is it possible that it's only been known for 10 years?

- Although they have always left their island for bartering, they would take care that no one approached them and lived there on their own, totally and deliberately isolated.

They are closer to the tradition of the Uros and live in harmony with the lake, venerating the lake divinity as part of their religion.

And by adopting the ancestral heritage of respect for nature and respect for everyone, this gives us food for thought.

How did our ancestors take care of nature and how do the Uros continue today?

Despite the globalization we hear about, to fight, to preserve nature.

[soft music] - Respect for nature is at the heart of the Uros culture.

Surprisingly, their island has no foundation.

It floats delicately like a leaf laid on the lake.

This is a totally opposite rationale to the deep rootedness that characterizes the way we live.

The lake is a land that the Uros cannot possess, nor would want to.

Here, water and wind are the real masters of the house.

[reefs croak] All the available materials on the island are recycled and reused, totora of course, but also wood and nails.

- Philippe, can you hold this?

You mustn't let it move.

- As there is little, nothing is thrown away.

Everything is precious and carefully reused to rebuild their dwelling.

Today, it's the kitchen's turn.

- Let's go to the kitchen.

- Okay, we'll go to the kitchen.

- First, we'll take off the roof, then we'll dismantle the structure.

Then we'll put this wall in place, and then the roof that Tomas is finishing.

- Do you often have to destroy your kitchen like this?

- We have to do it every four or five years because after a while, it lets in the wind and this kitchen is too big anyway.

A smaller kitchen would be warmer, that's why we're dismantling it.

- That means that you are constantly rebuilding your homes.

- You have to change your roof every three or four months.

The wall will last a year.

Come on, let's go.

- Excuse us, we're preparing your new kitchen.

[reefs croak] - Great.

- They're used to it, we can take away the walls and they won't move.

- Yes, they're used to it, it's not a problem.

Yes, here.

That can still be used.

Yes, we'll dismantle it piece by piece.

That's used for cooking on the stove.

We can use that too as a fishing rod or to make another structure.

Okay, go.

- Like this now?

Oh, sorry.

Over here?

[reefs croak] - Now the roof, go on, Philippe.

[cheering] - Right, then.

- Yeah.

- That looks good.

- Terrific, the new kitchen is ready.

- There you are in your new kitchen.

Aurelio, this is the first house I've ever built.

- Philippe, now we've finished.

We'll serve out the good meal because we've built a new kitchen.

That is our custom.

- At the end of my trip, the remarkable way the Uros inhabit the world makes me wonder.

Like Sisyphus pushing his boulder daily, the Uros are condemned to constantly cut the totora to rebuild their island.

Otherwise it would disappear, and they with it.

Some might see this as proof of their tragic destiny, but I'd say they were wrong.

With this repeated action, the Uros are investing their habitat with meaning.

By renouncing terra firma, they have found the space to be free.

[bright upbeat music]