First Place – Public
Vertical Campus – Universidad Central
Architects: Daniel Bonilla, Marcela Albornoz, Julián Restrepo,Pablo Forero
Design Team: Juan Carlos Cuberos,Santiago Sánchez ,Manuela Mosquera ,Maria Fernanda Villalba, Joaquín Mosquera , Melissa Ortega, Sebastián Gómez, Lila Salamanca,Paolo Ronchi,Yenny Romero
Description:
The proposed building is the first stage of a series of recommended interventions within the master plan proposal developed earlier for the University. The project was based on an urban premise that intended to improve the interaction of the university’s campus with the immediate surroundings. As a result, a public square that defines the main connectivity axis was envisioned, to articulate not only the proposed building, but also the rest of the campus inscribed within the urban block, and the city.
The composition was developed with three volumes, two of them achieved the maximum height allowed; while the third one, inscribed within the others and also receded from the site’s boundary, opened up the space to generate the public square that defines the access from the street (Carrera 5ta).
In addition, the two main volumes where envisioned with a platform/tower strategy, were the platform holds commercial uses, in order to grant greater interactions with the urban life, and some collective uses from the programmatic requirements. The central volume of the composition known as the “vertical campus”, was envisioned as the nucleus of the university´s life, singular and distinctive. The typology for the “vertical campus” was developed as an strategy to multiply the open / collective space in several levels.
Finally, in order to grant construction quality and also stability, timeless materials were introduced. The facades of the two similar volumes were composed with repetitive openings formed by vertical precast concrete elements, while the “vertical campus” facade was defined translucent , with a visible steel frame structure. The transparency of the central volume creates the lighthouse effect, helping iluminate the surroundings from inside out.
