Engineering Laboratories Tower - PUJ

Engineering Laboratories Tower | Pontificia Universidad Javeriana

Bogotá, Colombia

Category Education
Job type 1st Prize, Private national competition
Date 2014-2020
Size 13,674 m²
Client Pontificia Universidad Javeriana
Collaborator Juan Pablo Ortiz
Status Built
Awards XXVIII Bienal Colombiana de Arquitectura y Urbanismo 2022, Categoría Proyecto Arquitectónico, Winner | XIII BAQ 2022 - Bienal Panamericana de Arquitectura de Quito, Categoría Edificios Administrativos, Institucionales y Corporativos, Winner | Premios FIABCI Colombia 2022, Categoría Educativa, Winner | II Premio a la Excelencia en la Arquitectura Sostenible 2022, Categoría Premio Nacional, Winner | II Premio a la Excelencia en la Arquitectura Sostenible 2022, Categoría Institucional, Winner | Architizer A+Awards 2023, Higher Education & Research Facilities Category, Finalist | Architizer A+Awards 2023, Architecture +Metal Category, Finalist | Premios ICCA – ACESCO 2023, Categoría Edificios, Winner | CTBUH Awards 2023, Best Tall Building in the Americas Category, Award of Excellence | WAF 2023, Completed Buildings - Higher Education and Research, Finalist | WAF 2023, Completed Buildings - Retrofit, Finalist
Photos Pequeño Robot | deiz veinte | Toquica | Santiago Beaumé

The new Engineering Faculty

The project occupies the air with a thin tower, which houses a highly complex program, in order to free the ground floor for communal use. The project creates an integral building complex where the existing brick building and the new tower create a single entity: the Engineering Faculty.

The Atrium

The building brings together the different pedestrian flows that converge in a void between new and old. The atrium space connects on all sides at different heights.

The atrium becomes the main gathering space for the engineering community. Protected from wind and rain, this space is able to host a myriad of activities and events, a flexible multipurpose space, for the different engineering departments.

A protected public space

The building is located at the foothills of the Eastern Mountains, where high precipitations and strong wind currents could affect this space throughout the year. This public space, with the character of an imposing greenhouse, efficiently integrates the green areas east of the campus with the urban ones in the west.

The existing brick building facade is covered by a vertical garden and the existing Ficus soatensis tree is replanted in the middle of the atrium space.

The vertical gardens serve three main purposes: acoustic absorbtion, thermal regulation and visual appeal.

The atrium's amphitheater is a meeting spot by day as well as at night. The artificial lighting system is embedded within the modularity of the structure.

Communal spaces for all

Although this is a building with a very small footprint, the project creates the atrium as its main public space in the ground level, but also a communal terrace at the top of the tower. The project intends to give back to the community more than 100% of the footprint it is affecting.

The roof terrace

The glazed facade continues up to the roof terrace, allowing users to enjoy the city view while protected from high winds. The terrace is a community-open space 70m above the campus, with panoramic views over the city, the mountains, and the Bogotá savanna. A permanent meeting, congregation, and enjoyment space.

Engineering as the protagonist

We propose a building where the architectural typology is diluted or merged with the structural type. The history of modern architecture exemplifies two types of buildings where the previous statement occurs: first, the open-plan nave whose origin can be traced back to the architecture of greenhouses (Crystal Palace) and secondly, the towers with a structural façade, found in designs by engineer/architect Fazlur Kahn. These two construction types are associated with a material that belongs to the world of engineering: STEEL.

Inspired by these two typologies, where the façade and structure are one and the same, we propose a building made up of an atrium that evokes these diaphanous steel naves and a tower that follows the typological guidelines of the structural tube steel frame and its proven timeless flexibility and functionality.

The facade is made of 1,2cm thick sheets of structural steel. They are painted in brass color, a tone that highlights the metal character of its material and dialogues harmonically with Bogotá's sky and its mountains.

Flexible and perfectible space

The objective of the facade system is to create an open plan to help maximize flexibility and allow for future changes in use and space configuration.

The structural facade is made of 81 hollow-section columns, joined with continuous weld seams.

Northern façade

The laboratories that require natural light are placed on the north facade. The inner curtain walls, and the rigorous study of the laminated glazing, low in iron, create an elegant colorless transparency, without affecting the energy balance of the building.

North lobby

The pedestrian path coming from the north is connected directly to the north lobby of the building. From there, visitors get a first glance at the Structures laboratory on their right and the atrium in front of them. The space is expanded and then compressed to accentuate dramatically the access.

Eastern façade

Facing the mountains, in the east facade of the tower is located the elevators hall as well as the emergency staircase that connects all the levels in the tower.

The emergency staircase is, beyond a technical component of the building, an event with privileged views of the surrounding environment.

Western façade

Laboratories with a diverse range of specifications and scales share the same structural and spatial framework. Flexibility is one of the key features of the building.

Structures Lab

The lab, located 8 meters below ground, has a generous amount of natural light. Its big windows allow the public space to have a direct view of the technical tests done there. The 1-meter-thick reaction wall in solid concrete with 8 meters in height, is a heavy building grounded to the load bearing soil. It is an individual building separated by 10 cm that coexists within the 70 meters-tall tower that stands freely above it.

Technical floor

In the center of the building is a technical floor that concentrates the main ventilation system, technical rooms and installations. A demonstrative "installations lab" that supports the teaching activities, a building whose infrastructure acts as a teaching prop.

The façade, consists of a double enclosure with micro-perforated paneling modules (designed exclusively for this building) which allow for the circulation of air.

On the technical floor the building "breaths". Its central air distribution system is located on this level to help free the roof of technical equipment and instead offer it for people's enjoyment.