DARP - De Arquitectura y Paisaje

Great Colombian Park

Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal

Great Colombian Park

DARP - De Arquitectura y Paisaje

LOCATION
Villa Del Rosario, Colombia

CATEGORY
Public Space, Park

YEAR
2022

PHOTOGRAPHS
Mauricio Carvajal

COLLABORATORS
Camilo Restrepo, Manuela Castillo, Luisa Fernanda Amaya, Juan Camilo Arboleda, Sebastián Muñoz, Mauricio Carvajal, Carlos Palacio, Daniela Valdez, Ivanovha Benedetto, Juan Pablo Giraldo, Manuela Castillo, Diana Valencia, Jaime Ng, Juan Camilo Arango, Cristian Camilo Ríos, Alejandro Pérez, Melisa Arango, Sara Chinchilla, Milena Jaramillo, DG. Adriana García

LEAD ARCHITECT
Jaime Eduardo Cabal Mejía, Jorge Emilio Buitrago Gutiérrez

DEVELOPER
Ministerio de cultura

The Gran Colombiano Park is a place with a heritage declaration, made up of four real estates of cultural interest of national order (BIC), the highest degree of conservation established by the Ministry of Culture.

Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal
Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal

It is located less than two kilometers from the Colombian-Venezuelan border, a place of social, political, and environmental tensions that requires reconciliation actions. 

It commemorates the signing of the 1821 constitution, which gave life to the union of American countries known as Gran Colombia and the birthplace of General Santander, hero of independence, one of the eal estates of cultural interest of national order within the park, which functions as a museum house bearing his name.

Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal
Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal

In order to reconnect the heritage and the site, a longitudinal structure and a series of transversal structures are proposed.

These two structures organize the uses of the park, and its composition and recognize forms of connection at different scales.

Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal
Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal

The design of the project was arranged through a public competition in 2012, and has been executed in different phases during the last ten years.

It seeks to understand heritage from a broad perspective, which considers the built and the natural as part of a binomial and interprets sustainable construction policies focusing on the preservation of heritage values from the point of view of three different actions:

PROMOTHING ACCESSIBILITY TO HERITAGE:

The proposed interventions seek to physically recover the sites after their restoration while seeking to resignify them through a reorganization of the park routes and by combining pedestrian itineraries.

Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal
Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal
Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal

Small low-impact infrastructures of a mimetic nature use different strategies to respectfully articulate the whole while encouraging appropriation and promoting new uses for a space that had become an unsafe place of social segregation.

RECONNECTION NATURAL AND URBAN SYSTEMS:

Pre-existing environmental values are recognized in the park.

An old ditch in a state of desiccation due to mismanagement of neighboring urbanization, the park's wooded area with more than 80 centenary royal palms are restored.

Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal
Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal
Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal

A connection with the urban area of the municipality is prioritized, starting from recognizing the urban fabric, incorporating transversal crossings to the park with safe passages on the roads, and mitigating the problem of pedestrian accidents on two high-flow roads that surround the complex.

WORKING WITH THE COMMUNITIY

The project has been carried out at different stages for ten years, the last stage being the most important in size and scope.

Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal
Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal

This has allowed a rapprochement with neighboring communities and has allowed the development of consultation processes that have led to modifications to the originally presented project.

The preservation of vernacular construction traditions, the use of local materials, educational initiatives and consultation processes, have allowed an early involvement of the communities of the sector.

Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal
Great Colombian Park
© Mauricio Carvajal

Diverse social groups that inhabit the perimeter of the park begin their approach to this new scenario of urban life, giving their own meaning to the care and rehabilitation of tangible and intangible heritage.


Great Colombian Park
Section A-A'
Great Colombian Park
Section B-B'


Great Colombian Park
Implementation Strategy 01
Great Colombian Park
Implementation Strategy 02


Great Colombian Park
Park Access
Great Colombian Park
Access Scheme


Great Colombian Park
General Floor Plan
Great Colombian Park
Scheme - Accessibility
Great Colombian Park
Bench - Timeline


Great Colombian Park
Scheme - Structural Layers

DARP - De Arquitectura y Paisaje
T +57 4 4797110
DARP - De Arquitectura y Paisaje
Cra. 30 #10c 228, El Poblado, Medellín, El Poblado, Medellín, Antioquia, Colombia