Articulated Site in Colombia

by Jean-Philippe Hugron

“Since then, this project has won other awards at architecture biennials. All this recognition strengthened our emerging practice,” explains Mario Camargo, partner at Colectivo720. Being in the spotlight also enabled the Colombian office to obtain several commissions. “We answered invitations and won competitions on similar themes: the Antioquia Educational Park in San Francisco, the Pradera Volcano School and the Bogotá Film Library. Consequently, our office has enjoyed important growth, especially in cultural and educational facilities programmes,” he elaborates. With these prizes, Colectivo720 found its ‘open sesame’.

Mario Camargo shares his experience in the special edition of international design magazine L’Architecture d’Aujourd’hui (AA) dedicated to architecture competitions. Read the full interview and jury member comments by Fernando Diez, Director of architecture journal Summa+ and Professor of Urbanism, Universidad de Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina and Tatiana Bilbao, Architect, founder of Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Mexico City, Mexico. 

Reservoirs of culture: Interview with Mario Camargo (English flip book)

Réservoirs culturels: Entretien avec Mario Camargo (French flip book)

Reservas de cultura: Entrevista con Mario Camargo (Spanish flip book)

Jury comments 

“The project keeps the water reservoirs operational and takes advantage of their circular shapes in an aesthetic and playful way. Water is incorporated in the project, proposing recreational interaction that merges the new and the old use of the place in a visible and symbolic dimension.” – Fernando Diez, Director of architecture journal Summa+; Professor of Urbanism, Universidad de Palermo, Buenos Aires, Argentina; and Member of the LafargeHolcim Awards jury for Latin America in 2008, 2014 and 2017.

“The idea of thinking of water as a visible public resource that not only offers an infrastructural solution but at the same time a frame for people’s recreational life is very relevant in our century.” – Tatiana Bilbao, Architect, founder of Tatiana Bilbao Estudio, Mexico City, Mexico and Member of the Holcim Awards jury for Latin America in 2014 and 2017.

In Latin America, this recognition went to Mario Camargo on behalf of the team of colectivo 720 in Calí, Colombia. Using minimal financial and material resources, the architects transformed a decommissioned water reservoir in Medellín into a multiuse public park. The project won the Global Holcim Awards Gold in the fourth competition cycle. The jury applauded that it “foregrounds the value of water as an important resource of urban life, celebrating a piece of infrastructure as a civic work of collective pride and beauty.” Today, “UVA Orfelinato de la imaginación” is a pleasant reality for the local residents who are glad to see it standing the test of time.

Their Articulated Site: Water reservoirs as public park project in Medellín, Colombia, opened in December 2015, centers on creating high quality public spaces inserted into low-income, dense neighborhoods at a reservoir where two giant water tanks have been replaced by new infrastructure. The architecture takes inspiration from the site’s history, surrounding topography, and structure of existing tanks and pools, resulting in an intervention with minimal environmental impact. A humble design but the ideas about the future of the city are ambitious and imbued with humanity.

L'Architecture d'Aujourd'hui (‘A’A’) asked Mario Camargo, partner at Colectivo 720, more about the project genesis and the impact of the Holcim Awards on his work as an architect.

‘A’A’: Could you describe the project you submitted to the LafargeHolcim Awards for Sustainable Construction that won the Global Holcim Awards Gold in 2015 as well as the Gold for Latin America in 2014? What is the current status of this project?

Mario Camargo: UVA La Imaginación is part of the program UVA (Unidades De Vida Articulada) promoted by the Municipality of Medellin (2012-15) and implemented by Grupo EPM (Empresas Publicas De Medellin). The project aims at developing sociocultural public interventions around and above the water reservoirs from the municipal aqueduct.

From a multidisciplinary vantage point, this project has become a reference for the promotion of education, culture, technology, and community participation. By rebuilding infrastructure and valuing existing landscape, it recomposes elements of memory, while creating new urban imaginaries. In an interaction between nature and the urban landscape, the park seeks to improve the quality of life in the city.

UVA La Imaginación was one of the first drinking water reservoirs of the city. It included four tanks, two of which were already disused. The other two are part of the water supply system of the city. In this way, one of the biggest challenges and the main strategy of the project were to open the site to the community without affecting the system operation, fulfilling its public, social and cultural vocation. This was achieved through the re-use of infrastructure and inclusive architecture: open, creative, dynamic, relaxing, playful and green spaces that the sector needs to raise the knowledge exchange and community interaction.

UVA has become a symbol of a new urban development policy, focused in recognition and enjoyment of the city through architecture and public space. Today, they have developed permanent actions on prevention, promotions of culture, education, research and knowledge diffusion, through interaction between EPM Foundation and the community. The current offer of public space is complemented by programs including:

• “To create” workshops: painting, sculpture, photography, drawing, storytelling, recitals and cinema
• “To share” activities: book club, creative writing, and theater workshop
• “To communicate” courses: basic computer, Internet, word, typing texts and digital resources
• “To take care of the environment” workshops: clean water, human seeds, sciences games, animal mask, urban garden, eco-design, basic gardening

‘A’A’: What was the impact of the Holcim Awards prizes on your professional activity as an architect?

Mario Camargo: The Holcim Awards is without a doubt the most important competition worldwide in terms of sustainability. The impact of this recognition goes beyond dissemination and visibility. For us, as Colectivo 720, it is a commitment to think and build a city with quality, understanding the social, cultural and physical dynamics of each environment that we projected. Every day our professional activity is more committed to create more sustainable spaces and territories.

‘A’A’: What are you main current projects? Are you still in touch with the LafargeHolcim Foundation’s network and/or other Awards winners? If so; in what context?

Mario Camargo: Currently, our design studio is developing (design phase) three educational projects as part of District Schools program in the city of Bogota, and one institutional project, the new Cinemateca District of Bogota, currently under construction. Meanwhile, we are designing the lighting and landscape project of the Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas in the city of Cartagena, a monument that was designated by UNESCO as a World Heritage site in 1984.

This last year, we have developed different projects of different scales and almost all of them through public architecture competitions. At the same time, the office received a series of recognitions: winner at the 25th Colombian Biennial of Architecture in the ephemeral spaces category with the project Colonia Infancia, winner at the 2nd Latin American Biennial of Architecture with the winning project of the Holcim Awards, UVA Orfelinato (the original name of UVA La Imaginación which was renamed by a community competition to celebrate the opening of the facility), in the institutional project category. We also won in the not built project category with the Civic Center of Medellin master plan.

This year Colectivo 720 will represent Colombia at the Biennial of Latin American Architecture in Pamplona, Spain, in an open call that seeks to present the most recent and outstanding practices of young architects who works in the Latin American territory.

Another relevant aspect is that our office has been able to maintain ties with the Holcim Foundation. Last year, we supported promotion of the current cycle of Awards in El Salvador. In March, we will be in the cities of Cordoba and Buenos Aires (Argentina). In the same way, we have had other contacts to promote the winning project of the Holcim Awards in Colombia, and have received the friendliest treatment with each of Holcim’s representatives.

The master plan project named UVA de la Imaginación by the community was officially opened on December 29, 2015 with recreation and environmental care activities for children and adults during the day, followed by a family Christmas show in the late afternoon.

The project is enabled by enabled by Empresas Públicas de Medellín (EPM) together with the city council. Juan Calle, General Manager of Grupo EPM explained that by opening the water storage precinct for public use, the project is able to integrate water infrastructure and community spaces to better serve the people.

In addition to providing 8,607 square meters of outstanding green areas, walking trails, lookout terraces, water gardens and open spaces that regenerate an area once off-limits to the community and solely dedicated to water storage, the site features 2,212 square meters of built space. The community benefits from an amphitheatre, computer rooms, public baths, waterplay mall, and four acoustically insulated classrooms for teaching music and performance rehearsals.

UVA de la Imaginación is one of 20 sites in the city-wide project under the management of EPM. La Esperanza and Los Sueños were delivered in 2014, followed by la Alegría, la Armonía, Nuevo Amanecer and la Imaginación in 2015.

Articulated Site centers on the creation of public space around and above a series of water reservoirs. One of the two decommissioned water tanks is being converted into an amphitheater that will be covered with a lightweight layer to protect visitors from sun and rain. The roof structure is supported by pillars that are anchored up to 10 meters into the ground. The project is a symbol of sustainable urban development, providing leisure and public realm through public space as well as laying a platform for culture, research and knowledge diffusion through the interaction of public and private actors with the community.

The USD 2 million Holcim Awards is the most significant international competition for sustainable design. The jury composed of renowned specialists from around the world and headed by Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University (USA) will evaluate 15 projects out of more than 6,000 submissions. The finalists are the winners of the Holcim Awards Gold, Silver, and Bronze Awards 2014 in each of the five competition regions of the world.

The finalist projects competing for one of the three Global Holcim Awards prizes are located in Austria, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ethiopia, France, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Turkey, and the USA and were entered by authors from these countries as well as from Germany, the Netherlands, and Spain. They reflect a broad variety of the current interpretation of sustainable construction combined with architectural excellence and enhanced quality of life beyond technical intervention.

The submissions will be evaluated by the Global Holcim Awards 2015 jury including Marc Angélil, Senior Dean of Architecture and Urban Design at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (ETH Zurich, Switzerland), Alejandro Aravena, Principal of Elemental (Chile), Maria Atkinson, Founding Director of the Australian Green Building Council (Australia), Meisa Batayneh Maani, Principal of maisam architects and engineers (Jordan), Yolanda Kakabadse, President of WWF International (Ecuador), Mohsen Mostafavi, Dean of the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University (USA), Matthias Schuler, Principal of Transsolar(Germany), and Rolf Soiron, Chairman of the Board of the Holcim Foundation (Switzerland).

The winners of the global prizes will share prize money of USD 350,000. Previous winners of the tri-annual Global Holcim Awards include Bureau EAST (Los Angeles, USA), Centola + Associati (Salerno, Italy), Coelacanth and Associates (Tokyo, Japan), Ingenhoven und Partner Architekten (Dusseldorf, Germany), Kéré Architecture (Berlin, Germany), L’OEUF (Montreal, Canada), Public Architecture (San Francisco, USA), Proyectos Arqui5 (Caracas, Venezuela), realities:united (Berlin, Germany), Tsinghua University (Beijing, China), and Urban-Think Tank (São Paulo, Brazil).

Members of the Global Holcim Awards jury 2015

Finalist projects for the Global Holcim Awards 2015

Videos of all Global Holcim Awards 2015 finalists

About the Holcim Foundation and Holcim

The Swiss-based Holcim Foundation promotes and illustrates the strength of diverse strategies of achieving greater sustainability of the built environment. As part of its approach, the Foundation publishes booklets on outstanding examples of applied sustainable construction. The initiatives of the Holcim Foundation include the USD 2 million Holcim Awards – the most significant international competition for sustainable design.

Since it was established in 2003, the Foundation has been supported by Holcim in more than 70 countries worldwide and is independent of commercial interests. Holcim is one of the world’s leading suppliers of cement and aggregates (crushed stone, gravel and sand) as well as further activities such as ready-mix concrete and asphalt, including services. 

Considering the infrastructural use of the site, special attention is given to water management, which utilizes recycling technologies that involve rainwater and grey water harvesting through simple systems for the irrigation of the park. In an interaction between nature and the urban landscape, the park seeks to improve the quality of life in the city.

Construction strategies: The construction technology was based on the use of available local materials and resources within a rationalized construction method, allowing active local knowledge with easy labor training programs, and promoting community participation in low-risk construction activities. The materials favor efficient use of resources, applying alternative building materials for the structure, public space and overall furniture – such as recycled concrete, old tires, concrete pipes and plastic.

Waste management: A waste control program was designed to facilitate and promote selective collection of glass, paper and cardboard to use in recycled arts and crafts projects, increasing environmental awareness within the community. Furthermore, green waste is managed by composting and manual processing.

Water management: The project is conceived from the perspective of rational use of water resources, applying different methods for low water use. This water management program utilizes recycling technologies that involve rainwater and grey water harvesting for gardening purposes through simple treatment systems.

Lighting and energy efficiency: Visual comfort conditions were designed using natural light and the efficient use of energy. Understanding the relationship of the eye to natural light is critical to the perception and production of environmental quality. The energy demand of the project will be reduced by the use of non-conventional energy with an economically viable proposal that produces real benefits. The use of photovoltaic panels, skylights and surfaces that reflect light decreases the operating cost of the building in the medium and long term.

Thermal comfort and energy efficiency: Thermal comfort involves temperature, relative humidity and several factors such as local climatic conditions, cultural clothing and individual activities. The bioclimatic design strategies intend to generate comfort zones within a range of 18 to 25°C with a relative humidity of 20 to 80%. The project was designed with permeable walls throughout the perimeter of the building that allow cross ventilation. The courtyards enable air exchange and the evacuation of hot air by convection. Finally, solar protection is provided by the green roof and eaves overhang, generating shadowed areas that improve indoor comfort conditions.