Laboratorio Creativo OpenSpace - Medellín 2019

Project Details

OpenSpace Creative Laboratory – Medellín 2019

DESCRIPTION

A few days ago, just as we were finally able to step outside and rediscover the world that remained after the pandemic, Open Space opened its doors. What may seem like a coincidence is also a way of saying that this project is about networked thinking, expansion, and creativity; an experiment on the role of design as a means of connecting people, spirits, and intellects, but above all, of reminding us that today, more than ever, sharing has acquired the force of a principle.

The dimensions of the intervention speak of one piece joining another while seeking the least possible tension. A warehouse in Medellín’s Manila neighbourhood, assembled over time from fragments as it shifted between uses as a mechanical workshop, an office, and a garment-making space, is transformed through a series of elementary operations intended to level, clear, ventilate, and bring in light. The premise is to recover its essential industrial type: four double-height walls and a pitched roof supported by five wood trusses.

The dialogue with the space is guided by a series of elements of different kinds, arranged at its edges: two fir-wood mezzanines that reveal a structural order, six triangular gardens, eleven porthole windows, a staircase within another staircase, and yet another one that seeks to become a place rather than merely a means of moving up and down. One could describe it as a board composed of geometries that do not seem to fit together in any simple way, and that cannot fully merge with one another.

In other words, there is a staging of space that seeks to establish a certain order among different ideas, people, and moments in time, through architectural components that have moved away from the rules of function and allowed themselves instead to be shaped by the dimensions of the body and by relationships.

These quarantine photographs, captured through the eye of PR Arq, reveal a theatre of life, action, and teamwork that began as an idea by Carolina Alzate, a friend through countless battles, and that was able to multiply and explode once Camila, Miguel Murillo, and David Madrid joined the band. They also bear witness to the series of details and solutions that Martín Jiménez patiently managed throughout the construction process, to the hypnotic quality of Santiago Urreta’s gardens, and to the poetry that emerges in the relationship between the warehouse and Perceptual’s furniture.

DETAILS

Use

Coworking + Café

Type

Rehabilitation

Area

350 m²

Location

Medellín, Antioquia – Colombia

Meters above the sea level

1495

Average annual temperature

22.4 °C

Year

2019

Client

Communal + Open Space

Design

Yemail Architecture

Construction

Communal

Project team

Antonio Yemail + Martín Jiménez

Architectural Model

Sara Escobar

Photo Credits

Alejandro Arango

Categories: 3.1 Offices, 3.2 Product/Service, Production