Six designers tell about the new zest in Colombian architecture.

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WELCOME TO
COLOMBIA
Six designers tell about the
new zest in Colombian architecture.
Text Cathelijne Nuijsink / Photos Sergio Gomez
Orquideorama, by Camilo Restrepo
Arquitectos + Plan:B Arquitectos.
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meeting place, education centre and after-school
childcare centre. When we visit the building, it
is swarming inside and out with children, young
people and senior citizens, all eagerly making use
of the free facilities. 'The greatest achievement
of the cultural buildings realized in Colombia
in the last couple of years is the inclusion of
communities that were forgotten,' according to
Mazzanti. A similar sort of intervention is La
Quintana Library designed by Ricardo La Rotta,
on a north-westerly slope of the city. 'People have
found spaces to have fun again in the city,' says
La Rotta. 'It has activated a sense of belonging
and a positive attitude in the citizens as they became part of the social development themselves.
By using the new Metro Cable, a modern
cable-lift of the type found in ski runs and
amusement parks, we glide in 20 minutes from
the Library of Spain, over the underprivileged
neighbourhoods, back downhill. The bird's-eye
view reveals the new, liberating holes in the urban
fabric: green open spaces, connecting roads and
footbridges which open up some of the steepest slopes. They ensure that the neighbourhoods
become well-organized and that people can find
their way. Back on ground level, we transfer to
the new above-ground metro and travel to the
centre of Medellín, to science park Parque Explora designed by Alejandro Echeverri. Children
on school trips, parents with toddlers and teenage
pupils are enjoying themselves here on this
ordinary weekday with scientific play features,
interactive exhibitions and an unusual aquarium.
According to Echeverri, this sort of fun in
the city would have been unthinkable ten years
ago: ‘When I was at university, we used to focus
only on the most developed part of the city. That
was a serious mistake in such a divided society
like ours! Now, we have finally redirected our
attention towards the other side of the city,
the poorest areas, which represent 60% of the
population and urgently need our energy and
knowledge to develop.’ The creation of good
public spaces brings people back in contact with
each other and, as a result, leads to an improvement in the quality of life.
In the botanic gardens opposite Parque Explora we find Camilo Restrepo, who realized a
modular wooden roof covering here. He agrees
with Echeverri: 'Because of the social »
131
The Colegio en Santo Domingo, by
Obranegra Arquitectos.
Colombia is slowly struggling free of its reputation as an extremely unsafe country. Several
influential mayors have developed initiatives,
first in Bogotá and now in Medellín, to turn the
two biggest cities in the country into pleasant
places to live. By constructing infrastructure and
green spaces and building schools, libraries and
museums in the worst neighbourhoods, the cities
are reviving and the population is showing itself
on the streets again. At least – that’s been the
message in the last few years. When I arrive at El
Nuevo Dorado International Airport in Bogotá
to see the most important new interventions, I
am quickly brought back to earth. Without realizing it, we – my host, architect Giancarlo Mazzanti
and I – are followed on our journey from the
airport to the city centre by a gang of criminals.
When we pull up at a traffic light, one of the car
tyres 'suddenly' has a puncture. Out of nowhere,
people who just happened to be passing come
rushing over to help change the tyre but also distract us in different ways. After they all abruptly
disappear, it turns out that my luggage, including laptop, camera and passport, has done the
same. At the foot of the Torres Del Parque, of all
places, the iconic residential buildings designed
by Rogelio Salmona, my first acquaintance with
Colombia confirms all the prejudices about this
South American country. Now all that remains
is the question about the status of the current
transformations . . .
Ten years ago, Bogotá and Medellín were
badly-functioning cities, with blocked roads,
narrow alleyways and a lack of pavements
and green spaces. Medellín, the 'city of eternal
spring', which lies in a valley, was a fragmented
and divided conurbation with 2.2 million inhabitants, struggling to house the various layers of the
population. The north side of the city consists of
neighbourhoods which have grown spontaneously: labyrinths inhabited by mainly low-income
groups. The higher-income classes are found on
the south side of the city. For the 7 million inhabitants of the capital Bogotá, exactly the same
social imbalance prevails, the only difference being that the rich neighbourhoods are found in the
north and the poor in the south. A lack of antipoverty measures and the influence of a drugs
cartel led by Pablo Escobar yielded a violent
society, with no attention for infrastructure and
public spaces. Housing estates were inaccessible
and unapproachable, public spaces were used to
deal in stolen and smuggled goods.
Political will is a primary necessity for urban
transformation. In 1998, Enrique Peñalosa, the
mayor of Bogotá, promoted an urban model
which gave priority to children and open spaces
and he initiated the construction of hundreds of
kilometres of foot and cycle paths, completed
with greenbelt areas and parks. Enthusiasm
about the results infected Medellín, where Sergio
Fajardo, a mathematician who had chosen to
become a politician, took care of the improvements in 'his' city between 2003 and 2007. He
put together a project team of urban developers,
ecologists, civil technicians, architects, politicians
and environmentalists who got 30 projects going;
from footpaths, footbridges, parks and open
spaces to schools and libraries: the Proyecto
Urbano Integrale Nororiental (PUI). In order
to draw the inhabitants into the plans, children
from underprivileged neighbourhoods were
involved in the projects. They received single-use
cameras to record their own neighbourhoods.
That documentation apparently played a role in
the decision-making about precisely where the
interventions should take place.
Ever since 1980, it is a legal requirement in
Colombia for every new building to be realized
by means of a public competition. The building
rage of the last few years has provided architects
with the opportunity to admit to the failures and
interfere emphatically in the way problems need
to be addressed. It is striking how everyone is in
agreement: they choose unanimously for 'open'
architecture, architecture which not only contains
the required functions, but also offers users
and local communities the chance to alter their
behaviour. Take a look at Mazzanti's Library of
Spain (Mark #15), strategically positioned on the
summit of a mountain 'planted' with slums and
designed to look like three gigantic boulders.
Besides being an icon for Medellín, the library is
a source of pride for the inhabitants of the poor
neighbourhood Santo Domingo, in the north-east
of the city. What once was a murder scene is now
an attraction. It appeals to foreign tourists and
the terrace with panoramic views has become
a romantic spot for couples. The library is not
just an agency for borrowing books; it is also a
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Colegio en Santo
Domingo
Obranegra Arquitectos / Medellín
Carlos Pardo (Obranegra Arquitectos): ‘The
problem of today’s architecture is the thirst for
an immediate recognition (Facebook architecture) combined with preconceived formulas of
borrowed images (Photoshop architecture).
The result is a product of fast consumption.
For Obranegra Arquitectos architecture is not
a question of style or fashion, it is about the
primacy of place, the capability of interpreting
the ambitions of a society. The violence suffered in Medellín in the last decades obliged its
inhabitants to a form of progressive enclosure,
denying the streets in order to be safe.
‘Schools were no exception; they also were
fenced off and turned their back to the city.
With our Colegio in Santo Domingo we try to
teach people from an architectural perspective.
We applied the concept of an “open school”
and we integrated the building with the city by
means of a permanent link between education
and urban life. To achieve this, we needed to
dissolve the traditional limits (walls, fences) and
replace them with softer alternatives that serve
as transitions and allow transparencies. Thus a
sense of confidence is produced that we are so
in need of.
‘Using the strong topography of the neighbourhood, we proposed a 3,600-m2 LookoutPoint Plaza on top of the roof that operates as
a place of encounter between the academic
community, the inhabitants of the neighbourhood and the city. This new “inhabitable geography” relates to the landscape in the same way
the terraces of the neighbourhood houses do.
We enforced the effect with crevices, balconies
and open hallways. For the residents of this
neighbourhood, the school has turned into a
reference – not only because of its physical
presence but also because it has given them
the opportunity to do activities they couldn’t
do before, for instance use a library, computers and go to a gym. In that sense the Colegio
offers an answer to the specific necessities of
the community, with no other pretention than
turning into a second home for the students
(and in some cases the first and only home)
and a place for encounter for the residents
living nearby.’
http://obranegra.com
The partners of Obranegra Arquitectos, from left to right: Carlos Pardo,
Nicolas Velez and Mauricio Zuloaga.
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“The
greatest
achievement
is the
inclusion of
communities
that were
forgotten”
— Giancarlo Mazzanti —
differences, people don’t relate to each other as
equals, and the city becomes broken and socially fragmented. We need spaces to get together,
where we can trust each other.' His covering in
the (freely accessible) botanic gardens is used
for all sorts of events and is a welcome gift to
the inhabitants of Medellín.
A few days later, we are back in Bogotá
again. It is Sunday morning and the city centre
has been taken over by a sporty crowd of hundreds of people on bicycles and skeelers. Every
Sunday, the roads here are made free of traffic
and young and old set out for the city. Cultural
festivals and events like open-air salsa dancing
and aerobics are intended to encourage citizens
to spend more time in the refurbished public
spaces. Richer people are also rediscovering
the city. Escaping to their weekend house is
no longer necessary to enjoy a good weekend.
'The new public spaces allow the inclusion of
the expression “free time” in the vocabulary of
citizens again,' says Mazzanti. 'It is a productive time for enjoyment, and for interaction
between the communities.' Felipe Mesa, who
has joined us, endorses that thought: 'Slowly,
some affective bonds between rich and poor
are being created.' «
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Giancarlo Mazzanti.
Colegio Gerardo
Molina
Giancarlo Mazzanti / Bogotá
Giancarlo Mazzanti: ‘Colegio Gerardo Molina
is located in the periphery of Bogotá. It is one
of the 35 new schools that have been built
in the city in the last four years. The school is
organized using a modular system. It is a chain
with beads; each module relates to the next and
between them open spaces are created. Besides
the standard classrooms and the big central
square where all of the children can come
together, we designed lots of small roofed and
fragmented subspaces around the classrooms
where a few children can gather. Young people
prefer smaller spaces where they can relate to a
little community.
‘When you make a public school, the space
inside the school walls usually becomes private.
In Colegio Gerardo Molina we proposed “walls”
that are in fact green zones, to be used by the
community. The inner courtyard is separated
from the neighbourhood by means of a wooden
latticework. A floodgate system was set up to allow the nearby residents to use the library building, the dining room and the computer room.
‘The success of the development policies in
our cities is a result of the construction of public
flagship buildings that allow local residents to do
things they could not do before. The poorer the
community, the more powerful the intervention
is. Colegio Gerardo Molina is not merely a functional building that houses an educational use,
it also exhibits the mechanisms of learning. It’s
a piece of architecture that doesn’t simply host,
but that acts. The school summarizes the idea of
architecture as a mechanism of social transformation, the inclusion of the community, and of an
adaptive system that can easily be repeated in
the city in other configurations.’
www.giancarlomazzanti.com
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Colegio Las Mercedes
Juan Manuel Pelaez / Medellín
Juan Manuel Pelaez: ‘Colegio Las Mercedes is
one of those urban interventions that shows that
public infrastructure can provide a higher quality of
life. Approximately 40 per cent of the 365 days in
a year count as weekends or school holidays. So
why not give the community, now lacking any type
of urban equipment, the opportunity to use those
spaces when the school is not? To that purpose,
we applied a spiral layout that extends the programme of the school into the neighbouring community. In the most private areas, the classrooms,
maximum concentration is guaranteed, whereas
the more public spaces for combined activities
connect to the city.
‘It is important to see how the school avoids
the use of enclosures such as fences or walls. The
space is organized by use of the building volumes
themselves. The intervention immediately had a
positive effect on the neighbourhood. Students
and their parents are happy with the new school,
while people from the middle and upper classes
feel that the social investment has made the city
a safer place. But one swallow does not make a
summer. Many more interventions are needed to
make a real transformation happen.’
http://juanmanuelpelaez.com
Juan Manuel Pelaez.
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Parque Explora
AE Arquitectos / Medellín
Alejandro Echeverri (AE Arquitectos): ‘The challenge was to design a space, not just a conventional building with defined limits. We wanted
our science and technology park to be a place
to be experienced. What’s more, it responds to
the geography of the valley in the distance and
to the renovated Carabobo Street, one of the
most typical pedestrian walkways of Medellín,
lined with heritage buildings and artistic and
architectural landmarks.
‘The design of the park is based on a sequence of open spaces and different levels. It is
like a newly built topography of folds, incisions,
balconies and walkways from where you can
overlook the city and be seen by the citizens.
We did not want a classic museum or some
kind of short-life theme park. Instead, we tried to
create a space that has both open areas – characterized by “fair” galvanized steel, fluorescent
lighting and outdoor facilities for playing simple
scientific games – and closed areas, boxes,
for the technological exhibitions, often with an
interactive aspect to them. The programme is
divided over three layers. The four red boxes
contain the main programme of this science
museum. The spaces made of concrete contain
the complementary supports programme, such
as an aquarium, a cinema, a television studio
and technical and administrative services.
‘Parque Explora is a strategic project that
is part of a political urban recuperation of a very
deteriorated part of the city; a frontier between the old historical centre and the poorest
neighbourhoods in the northern part of Medellín.
It aims to be a reference, and a place for the
re-encountering of social groups that up until
now would not interact. In all honesty, it has succeeded. Parque Explora and the other projects
of the “New North”, such as the Jardin Botanico,
Carabobo Street and Parque de los Deseos,
have converted into a new meeting point of what
up until recently was a divided society.’
www.aearquitectos.com.co
Alejandro Echeverri.
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From left to right: Felipe Mesa, J
Paul Restrepo, Camilo Restrepo.
Orquideorama
Camilo Restrepo Arquitectos + Plan:B
Arquitectos / Medellín
Camilo Restrepo: ‘We wanted to do architecture as if we were planting a garden of flowers.
That’s why we see Orquideorama as a system:
a forest of tree-sized, flower-shaped structures. Each structure is composed of seven
hexagons. The project is a set of 14 of these
structures. It is a building in which some of the
characteristics of a tree are reproduced – like
the combination of light and shadow, and the
possibilities for birds to live. This results in the
sensation of being neither inside nor outside.
Since it has this open and flexible organization,
different kinds of activities can take place in
Orquideorama, from rock concerts to flower
exhibitions and fashion shows. As these activities attract many people, it has become an icon
for the city of Medellín. But it can also be used
as a place for reading or relaxing. The materials
are recyclable. The wood we used is from a
plantation that grows industrial wood.’
Felipe Mesa (Plan:B Arquitectos): ‘Orquideorama can grow with time, and transform
without altering the system. It can adapt to upcoming budget availabilities, and to the organic
atmosphere in which it is inserted. Many of the
events that happen in Orquideorama attract a
wide diversity of people, from all social classes.
Even when private events take place, people
can enter the botanical garden normally and
free of charge. When visiting Orquideorama one
will most likely be in the presence of all sorts
of groups and individuals, among them many
students from public schools. I think this type of
building generates a festive atmosphere.’
www.camilorestrepo.net
www.planbarquitectura.com
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Ricardo La Rotta.
“Walking inside and
outside the library
grounds happens
without noticing it”
— Ricardo La Rotta —
La Quintana Library
La Rotta Arquitectos / Medellín
Ricardo La Rotta: ‘The library of La Quintana is comprised of two volumes that are divided by a pedestrian
street. The public axis through the site is the main
path of the pedestrian flow in this area. By splitting
the building volume, I located the library activities on
a route and defined a space that promotes social
encounters. Walking inside and outside the library
grounds, thus going from the public to the private,
happens almost without noticing it. At the upper
level end the pedestrian street widens into a large
square; at the lower level it connects to La Quintana
Park, which flows into the Río Medellín, the Regional
Transportation Terminal and other facilities in the city.
In the future, it will connect with an access point of
the Metroplus, a new improved transit system with
bus lines.
‘With the increase of pedestrian traffic and thanks
to the new architecture itself, the entire zone has been
reactivated. Public space of the lowest quality (where
security problems, social disintegration and a lack
of civic-mindedness were evident) has been clearly
restructured. The community experiences a positive
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change, and feels part of a group of people who are
involved in the development of the city. It is a space
that people can now call their own and enjoy freely.
For instance, it hosts a calendar of cultural events
organized by the neighbourhood throughout the year.
‘La Quintana Library sets an example of equitable design, providing accessibility to the largest
possible number of people so they can enjoy the
space regardless of their condition, education or
experiences. The building is thus a response to the
zone in which it was built, not for its formal beauty but
for the impact it has on the lives of the people that
are involved.’