Almost a decade ago, news flooded Colombian media: the announcement of the winning project for the Tropicario of the Bogotá Botanical Garden. Today, we want to bring you all the information we have compiled since then, both about the competition won by DARP and the construction process - up to its inauguration in 2021 and its evolution in recent times.
We hope this architectural journey helps you to know every step, every decision, and every detail that contributed to its realization. Understanding that its true legacy lies in how it transforms lives, inspires communities, and endures over time.
The Competition
The call promoted by the Colombian Society of Architects, at the request of Bogotá Humana, sought to strengthen the role of the Botanical Garden as a reference in scientific research and knowledge management on ecosystems. Twenty-four proposals were submitted, of which the jury awarded a first, second, and third place, as well as two mentions, focusing on their unity and coherence. The integration of various services into a single project was considered, taking into account the particularities of each one, as well as its institutional image and its adaptation to the planned urban environment.
The jury highlighted the first-place project by DARP - Architecture and Landscape, a sober project that is "especially sensitive in its implementation, shaping an integrated landscape within the environment, [in which] it is articulated with the adjacent moorland and wetland collections of the Garden through the water system." Additionally, they emphasized that "the spatial result transforms the building into a transitional space within the garden, enabling users to have a learning and interpretive experience."
Construction
Three years after the award, architect Nicolas Valencia talked about the construction progress with Jorge Buitrago and Jaime Cabal, the project's directors and co-founders of the Colombian office. "The bet was to think of the project as a series of small interconnected landscapes through areas configured as artificial wetlands," they explained. "It is a type of ecosystem that, although not part of the competition, has been very important in the Bogota savanna territory."
The project began construction in 2016 and was divided into three phases. The first phase consisted of the construction of three structures that house the collections: Dry Forest, Useful and Specialized Plants, and Biodiversity. This stage also included general foundation works, technical areas, and connections with the rest of the botanical garden. The second phase focused on constructing the largest structure, with around 25 meters high, representing the ecosystems of the Choco biogeographic and the Amazon. The last stage was carried out simultaneously with the construction of the structures and covered the museography and landscaping development of the different collections, including the implantation of vegetation and the incorporation of scenographic elements defined by the Bogota Botanical Garden.
The Building
According to the authors, "the conservation of the wax palms that surround it was decisive, a species declared a national tree, in danger of extinction and with very slow growth. These palms live more than 100 years, reaching heights of up to 70 meters. Around the Tropicario, there are more than 70 palms of this type in an adult state. This raised the need to use a system of flexible forms that did not affect them."
"Another important condition was the integration into the structure of the Botanical Garden and its strong educational and outreach vocation. The Tropicarium is part of the overall garden tour, and the proposed architecture is generated by the act of traversing it, so it could not be conceived as a building enclosed by walls. The guiding question was, 'How do we relate to the landscape of the Bogotá Savanna?' This question required the project to function as a space for disseminating and teaching about the environmental values and threats faced by this territory, as a way of contributing to the local landscape culture. The response involved understanding the building as a system, interconnected parts that form a whole." You can read more about the completed work at the following link.
The After
This 2023, on the occasion of International Sustainability Week, we were invited to the city of Bogotá and did not miss the opportunity to escape to visit the Tropicario of the Botanical Garden. Visiting a place filled with plants and trees, and witnessing how they bloom and evolve over time, is a testament to the fact that transformation doesn't happen overnight. It also speaks volumes about sustainability.
But the most striking thing was the interest shown by all the visitors in carefully exploring this circuit of greenhouses, not only to learn about each climate: the tropical rainforest, the dry tropical forest, the superpáramo, the useful plants, and the plants for conservation but also to be amazed by the immense potential of Colombian architecture.
