Heatherwick Studio’s First Project in South America Promises to be an Eyeful
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Architects & Firms
London-based Heatherwick Studio, whose recently commissioned projects in the Americas include a colossal lakefront library in the master-planned community of Columbia, Maryland, and a public park at Harley-Davidson’s corporate headquarters in Milwaukee, has revealed the design for its inaugural project in Latin America: a new home for the school of sustainable design at Universidad Ean in Bogotá, Colombia.
Image by NOD, courtesy Heatherwick Studio
Design details on the seven-story building—to be located within the university’s main campus along bustling Calle 72, a main drag in the high-altitude Colombian capital city—are scant at this stage. However, a trio of eye-popping renderings of the project certainly supports the thesis of founder Thomas Heatherwick’s largely critically lambasted new book, Humanize, that new buildings shouldn’t be “boring.” The project at Universidad Ean promises to be something—and restrained isn’t one of them.
Image by NOD, courtesy Heatherwick Studio
As evidenced in the renderings, the building’s signature feature is a front facade comprising circular, plant-stuffed terraces—a Heatherwick hallmark—supported by kaleidoscopic segmented columns resembling inverted candlesticks. The design and its flamboyant color scheme, which recalls Bolivia’s Neo-Andean architecture, is an homage to local craft traditions, according to the studio. Specifically mentioned is Werregue basketry, a form of weaving unique to Colombia’s Wounaan indigenous community, as influencing the decidedly gaga facade. As for the plants that will populate the oversized terraces, they will be local species that bring a taste of the dense cloud forests of Chicaque Natural Park to the heart of South America’s fourth-largest city. (As noted by the firm, Bogotá is a signatory to the C40 Urban Nature Declaration, a commitment to bring parks and greenery to major cities.)
“Creativity is intrinsic to the city of Bogotá. You see it everywhere,” said Eliot Postma, group leader and partner at Heatherwick Studio, in a statement. “We want students to feel proud of their campus before they even enter the building, arriving through a public square that offers passersby a welcoming communal oasis amidst the hard urban surroundings.”
Work on the impossible-to-miss new building at Unversidad Ean is slated to commence next year.
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