A building designed to teach...
Project: School of Architecture, Universidad de los Andes, Universidad de los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia Architects: Bermúdez Arquitectos, Bogotá, Colombia
There are many things that a building can teach, but in most instances, the information remains invisible to the students. With that in mind, the concept of a ‘ building that educates’ was pursued throughout the design process for Bloque C of the Universidad de Los Andes. One of the intentions behind this building was to offer the students some key lessons on the technical systems that constitute a building. ‘ To make visible the invisible’. After all, teaching ( to show, to point out) supposes that you should be able to demonstrate and explain what you want the student to learn.
The new Faculty of Architecture is located in the central part of the university, and plays an important role in connecting the different parts
of the campus— both vertically ( east- west) and horizontally ( north- south). It is a connector of the different levels of the sloped terrain.
It also succeeds to combine the spatial qualities of the open spaces and connections generated by the traditional buildings of the campus, with the efficiency and convenience of the recent large- scale constructions.
The project is based on four principles: The pedagogical principle, as it aims to reflect the essential elements of teaching architecture and design; the principle of integration, as it promotes interaction between the students of this particular faculty with the rest of the university, while offering
specific spaces that encourage community building between the faculty members; the principle of flexibility, as it offers a variety of uses and configurations of its educational spaces by means of mobile elements and adaptable furniture; and the organic principle, because it assimilates environmental variables, pre- existing elements of the landscape and spatial components present in the collective memory of the institution.
The central courtyard— the representative space of encounter for the faculty— is a space that did not exist before on the campus. The multi- purpose classrooms, placed from the second floor upwards, are pedagogical spaces