PATIO AND TOWER
This way of dealing with the project gives the set of works a rationalist stamp, according to which formal decisions tend to be postponed until they become the consequence of a process of creation governed by technology. In the next article you will see what happens when this way of understanding the project must incorporate an additional factor: the shape of the city.
The first years of the 1960s were a period of adjustment and paradigm shift for architecture in Colombia. The broadening of the field of disciplinary references towards Scandinavian architects and the critical currents of modern architecture that emerged after the end of CIAMs, mark the context in which a generation of architects who had made direct contact with these trends began their journey towards professional maturity towards the middle of the decade. This is the case of Enrique Cerda, Fernando Jiménez and Alfonso Tamayo, associated for a short time to carry out, among other projects, the design of the industrial plant of the Colinda firm. Cerda came from the Universidad Católica de Chile, and Jiménez, with master’s degrees at Harvard and MIT, would make an outstanding career in the field of urbanism in later years. The plant was located north of Bogotá, in what were then agricultural and industrial lands. Colinda was built on a plot at the junction of a rural road and the railway, with the eastern hills as a backdrop. The chosen concept consisted of a production hall as a main piece, a group of volumes destined for administration, cafeteria and services, and a connecting corridor between the two parts. The access road passed in front of a small courtyard with a water fountain formed by the administrative block and a separation wall behind which the water tank rose - the vertical landmark of the complex - and then ended at the side of the plant on a cargo vehicle parking area. The two parts were arranged so that the sloping roofs of the administration opened to the east and west, with broken volumes marking the variety of functions and spatial hierarchies; the plant, in counterpoint, consisted of a rectangular volume with an inverted gable roof open to the south and north. The highest point opened to the south with a brise-soleil. The use of brick added to the diagonal cut of the walls established relationships with the surrounding landscape, by contrast between colors and textures, and by analogy by making the volumes follow the nearby hills, if one looked to the east, and to the hills furthest to the west, marking the boundaries of the Bogotá savannah if the complex was observed from the south. The water tank, a cylinder painted white, marked the point of articulation between the geometries in plan and in section. The dividing wall followed the flat roof of the corridor, thus defining its condition as articulating elements between the parts. The scale of the project and the layout of the volumes refer to the hacienda houses and utilitarian buildings built in the region during colonial times, and at the same time its design recalls recent episodes of Scandinavian architecture: tall, elongated, large windows, large brick surfaces, inclined roofs looking for sunlight and counterpoints between the horizontality of the main volumes and a single vertical element as a landmark within the complex. Although it is not possible to characterize the evolution of modern architecture in Colombia as an exploration on the expressive possibilities of the object-building, this does not mean that there has not been an exceptional list of modern buildings that were located beyond the fabric of the Colombian historical city. The buildings that have been described so far are part of this list and despite the apparent dispersion of interests, there is a more or less invisible thread that connects the process of formalization of these buildings-object with each other. It has to do with paying attention to technical problems, particularly those arising from thinking about the structure and establishing the dimensions of the work.
(*) Autores:
Authors:
Hugo Mondragón L. Profesor asociado Escuela de Arquitectura Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Arquitecto UPC, maestría en Historia y Teoría de la arquitectura UNC. Magister en Arquitectura y doctor en Arquitectura y Estudios Urbanos PUC. Rodrigo Cortés. Profesor asociado Escuela de Arquitectura y Urbanismo Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Arquitecto UNC. Gabriel F. Rodríguez. Profesor asociado Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Arquitecto UNC. Maestría en Historia y Teoría de la arquitectura UNC. Juan Luis Rodríguez . Profesor asociado Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Arquitecto Universidad de los Andes de Bogotá. Maestría en Historia y Teoría de la arquitectura UNC. Maestría en Filosofía Universidad Javeriana. MDS Harvard University. Francisco Ramírez. Profesor titular Escuela de Arquitectura Universidad del Valle. Cali-Colombia. Arquitecto Universidad del Valle. Andrés Téllez. Investigador independiente. Arquitecto Universidad de Los Andes de Bogotá. Magister en Arquitectura y Doctor en Arquitectura y Estudios Urbanos PUC. José Reinaldo Tibaduiza. Maestría en Historia y Teoría del arte, la arquitectura y la ciudad UNC. Maestro en artes plásticas UNC.
Hugo Mondragón L. Associate Professor School of Architecture
Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile. Architect UPC, master’s in History and Theory of Architecture UNC. Master’s in Architecture and PhD in Architecture and Urban Studies PUC. Rodrigo Cortés. Associate Professor School of Architecture and Urbanism Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Architect UNC. Gabriel F. Rodríguez. Associate Professor Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Architect UNC. Master’s in History and Theory of Architecture UNC. Juan Luis Rodríguez Associate Professor Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Architect Universidad de los Andes de Bogotá. Master’s in History and Theory of Architecture UNC. Master of Philosophy at Universidad Javeriana. MDS Harvard University. Francisco Ramírez. Full professor Architecture School Universidad del Valle. Cali, Colombia. Architect Universidad del Valle. Andrés Téllez. Independent investigator. Architect Universidad de Los Andes de Bogotá. Master’s in Architecture and PhD in Architecture and Urban Studies PUC. José Reinaldo Tibaduiza . Master’s in History and Theory of Art, Architecture and the City UNC. Master in Plastic Arts UNC.
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