The blog in recent days has been the victim of neglect due to an assortment of multitasking I’ve been up to. Between getting up and out the door everyday to see Medellín and scheduling some final interviews, I’ve been lining up opportunities for life after Medellín.
I will try my best to keep things fresh and finish off posts in an appropriate time.
Ricardo Velez (Left) and Ani Velez (Right)
Today I met with Ana Elvira Velez. A master of Colombian social housing and urban design, Ani is one of the Architects responsible for the revival of the Zona Norte area, coming up with the new plan for the perimeter of Jardín Botanico, kneading the former rugged boarder into a more inviting space with the ability to pull people towards and welcome them into the Jardín Botánico.
Born in Medellín, Ani’s family moved around quite a bit in her early youth. Her father, an Engineer, worked in London for Ove Arup on the Sydney Opera House before going to Purdue University and later on to Jamaica before finally coming back to Medellín.
Ani studied at the Architectural Association where she studied under and later worked for Wiel Arets. While studying in London, her family’s home bacame a quasi Colombian Architectural Embassy for the, then budding, Medellín Architects, of which most came to London to study English language and/or to tour Europe.
My interview lasted a good portion of the afternoon covering a broad range of subjects from her family’s international travel when she was young and how it left an impression on her, to the dichotomy of Social housing approaches within the city today. At the end of the day, Ani took me to see one of her hosing projects, La Playa Apartamentos, on the near eastside of the city.
Here is an excerpt of my interview where Ani explains a bit about what drew her to design and the opportunities that brought her back to Medellín.
A bit later on in my interview I had a chance to peg Ani on social housing on the periphery of the city and her views about it, here’s our exchange.
below, Site visit…
Water Pond Cloister
Today I went towards the southwest sector of the city to visit Biblioteca Belén. Biblioteca Belén is named after the comuna for which it’s situated. Designed by Hiroshi Naito, Belén is the only Library Park designed by a non-Colombian Architect. The Biblioteca is similar in the programmatic function of it’s sister libraries, having a play room for children (Ludoteca), Mi barrio room, Adult and Children libraries ample public spaces and an Auditorium. What Belén offers it’s residence besides these basic functions is a chance to explore a bit more about Japan and Japanese Architecture; the Biblioteca offers a room solely dedicated towards Japanese literature and culture and the entire campus for the library park is skillfully planned to mimic traditional Japanese Buddhist monetary design.
Plan Sketch
The best attribute of the park is it’s ability to stitch the linear gap that use to exist between the surrounding neighborhoods to the east and west; The library park is perfectly positioned to link neighborhoods at this critical juncture along Carreras 76 and 80a.
Biblioteca Belén’s park aspects can be broken down into 3 spacial zones…
Park, Cloister, Plaza
with each serving different roles.
The Park, mimics the openness feeling of Carrera 80a by providing a great field for lounging in the grass all while catching sounds of practicing musicians out of the Escuela de Música and Salón de Ensayo (rehersal room).
The Plaza, mimicing the density of Carrera 76, serves as a more intimate setting for outdoor performances with it’s plaza and stepped plinths against the Teatro.
The Cloister, rotating around the tranquility of a motionless water pond are the main service buildings of the library. The use of the largest programmed buildings to surround the pond creates a visual and auditory break that allows one to shed a sense of the outside world and relax into the peaceful world of reading.
I’ve never felt so peaceful as I did today, anywhere in Medellín. I truly felt transposed into a realm of serenity.
Below, a few pictures from the day…
This Afternoon I visited Biblioteca León de Greiff, another project of Giancarlo Manzzanti. Situated within the East side barrio of La Landera and built on the site of the former La Landera Men’s Jail, the Biblioteca is named after one of the Medellín literary greats in the Modernist Movement of the early 20th century, León de Greiff (poet).
Less pronounced than and following a similar design layout as Biblioteca España, León de Greiff is broken up into three bloques, on for children, one for adults and an Auditorium. Within each bloque are secondary spaces for computers and workshop rooms. and on top of all three are outdoor theaters which stitch back into the neighboring community park and play courts further up the hillside.
A lot of space has been reserved around the library for recreational purposes which aids Mazzanti’s design reflecting back towards downtown and the barrios that rest lower than the Biblioteca with little to no obstructions. It also help set the library apart from the different grids of the barrios surrounding the side while also allowing for temporary events to take place within the green space. For instance on my way up to the site there was a circus tent setup.
looking west towards Downtown
Below, a few pictures from the day…
