Colombia is a country whose architecture continues to surprise us with projects that seek to improve the quality of life of its residents, which in turn tends to attract individuals to learn and contribute to proposals that generate and create much more vibrant cities.
The city's advances in architecture and urbanism in recent years have materialized in a series of programs and projects in other cities, awakening the interest of professionals and academics from architecture and global urbanism.
The development of projects such as the Metro Cable in Medellín, TransmiCable in Bogota, or the series of parks and libraries that have been built throughout the country after the success achieved in the first two cities, makes the idea of betting on much more innovative projects a more attractive prospect, which dares citizens and designers of all kinds to dream, stoking the spirit of entrepreneurship throughout the country and much of Latin America. To reflect this, we have chosen 6 projects that will undoubtedly change and improve the quality of life in Colombia.
National Memory Museum / MGP + estudio.entresitio
Calle 26, Bogota
The future National Memory Museum is an architectural and urban proposal that will commemorate the pain of the country's violent past and, at the same time celebrate the hope for a peaceful future. Passing through the Threshold of Peace - the main floor of the proposal is a monumental public space, that is covered, open, democratic, and is integrated with the surrounding park - it will start with a light- contained space, with an ascending and descending processional nature, that will connect the auditorium with an underground collection with exhibition halls and above-ground creation spaces.
SuperCADE Manitas / Arquitectura en Estudio
Bolívar City, Bogota
The construction of transport infrastructure offers an opportunity for the reclassification of marginalized areas and their integration into the urban fabric. The construction of SuperCADE Manitas as the complementary building to the TransmiCable station has become an opportunity to reclassify the built environment of a sector that suffered from a lack of public space and institutional presence as it now an urban connector on multiple scales.
New Recreational Center of El Tunal Metropolitan Park in Bogota / FP Arquitectura
Bolívar City, Bogota
The project proposes the integration of the ecological area of the Tunjuelo river basin to the El Tunal metropolitan park, and from there connecting it to the city to create a biotic continuity. The positioning of the building helps conserve a greater amount of the surrounding trees and reinforces the transversal connectivity of native trees with the biotic zone. The proposal aims to connect the El Tunal Park to the city by means of accessing a public square that crosses the building, which then connects to the internal circuits of the park with a perimeter boardwalk.
Second phase of the Cali Green Corridor / Espacio Colectivo Arquitectos + OPUS
Cali, Valle del Cauca
The way that the city developed restricted cross-sectional ecological and social relationships. The green corridor is an opportunity to promote a city model that is committed to the articulation of urban systems with natural systems to improve the quality of life of people and recover environmental and landscape values that have characterized Cali.
The project proposes to take advantage of a section of the old railway line to: reintegrate an urban ecological network between the hills and the river; socially and spatially integrating the city; balance connectivity with a clean public transport corridor, and renew the city with strategic projects that trigger transformation processes along the central line.
New intervention strategy for the Fucha river in Bogota / MOBO Architects + Ecópolis + Concreta
Bogota
The river and its surrounding natural systems are the backbone of the proposal. Their weaknesses should be seen as problems for the city and its inhabitants. Restoring it will allow the consolidation of a territory that integrates urban life with the ancestral ecosystem of the Bogota savanna. Its strategic location among multiple centralities makes the Fucha river corridor an ideal place to promote development oriented towards sustainable urbanism and life. The city's guidelines to accomplish this include densifying housing, organizing trade, and cleaning up the industrial sector.
Laboratory Complex at the Javeriana University of Cali (PUJ) / Espacio Colectivo Arquitectos
Cali, Valle del Cauca
The project is part of an existing and consolidated educational infrastructure that has yet to be completed. It is located in the middle of a diverse plantation of mature trees that lends a great environmental quality to the place, which is seen as an opportunity to provide a comfortable habitability to the laboratory complex's study areas.
The proposed buildings will be made in the similar style and formality to the architecture of the campus in order to achieve a spatial and functional resemblance and to facilitate lecture presentations in the university. These spaces of innovation must be adaptable and flexible so that they may serve both the current pedagogical programs as well as the new and future programs, to meet the high quality of education at the PUJ.