Museo Subterráneo Monumental 180m - Zipaquirá 2024

Project Details

Monumental Underground Museum 180m – Zipaquirá 2024

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DESCRIPTION

Nominated project at the 2026 Oscar Niemeyer award for Latin american architecture Sixth edition

Finalist editorial selected project at the XXX 2026 Colombian Architecture and Design Biennial

Project selected honorable Mention at the 2026 Santa Cruz International Architecture Biennial

Winning project at the XXIX 2024 Colombian Architecture and Design Biennial in the Interior and ephemeral architecture category

Finalist selected project at the XXII 2024 Quito Pan-American Architecture Biennial

The Monumental Underground Museum 180 meters is located on two cameras inside Zipaquirá's Salt Cathedral at 180 meters under the ground and within a few metres of the underground church. The importance of the Cathedral's entire complex lies not only in its religious value but also on its historical, patrimony, cultural, environmental, and social value.

With the intention of preserving and revitalizing the historic values of this extraordinary place, it its planned to build a Sculpture Monumental Museum that re-retrieves its architectural, spatial and symbolic qualities, with an intervention that respects the mine and Cathedral's authenticity from the masterful performance of the architect Roswell Garavito Pearl in 1990.

Conceived to house a series of works created by 22 world-renowned sculptors from 19 countries, who were invited to Colombia to work directly on-site, the Museum seeks, in essence, to recapture the profound sense of the Salt Cathedral, and to link it with the experience of contemporary Art.

Occupying two contiguous chambers and interconnected by a tunnel; the museum features a series of bas-reliefs carved into the side walls of the chambers, an area for displaying marble sculptures, an area for temporary exhibitions, and a circular amphitheater for cultural events; in addition, the museum is complemented by a themed café and a shop for selling art objects related to the museum itself.

Thus, a grand setting for monumental modern art sculptures is proposed, enlivened with unique events and breaks along the path. The pieces have been arranged on two platforms that allow to highlight the sculptures, and –as the essential parts of a piece of art– that are resting upon, sinking into, or hover over the podiums and inscribed on the walls to be contemplated by the visitors from different and unexpected angles and points of view.

Artworks and events strategically occupy the space of the two chambers under the effect of a constellation of light fixtures without altering the mine's genius loci –it is a boost and give it a renewed sense to combine the space achieved by the work of miners to excavate the mine, with the works achieved by the precise work of sculptors, in addition of the concrete work that had been accomplished by the builders, and to the precise ordering of all of the items designed by the architects.

The organic irregularity of the chambers lies in tension with the precise cutting of the stone, the casting and the geometric modeling of the concrete, the assembly of the wood, and the careful arrangement of the spatial experiences. The Monumental Underground Museum pursues the balance between the organic forces of the underground soil with geometric forces of artistic and architectural creation and situated deep within Colombia’s greatest patrimony site: the Salt Cathedral.

DETAILS

Use

Sculpture museum

Area

1229 m2

Location

Zipaquirá, Colombia

Meters under ground

180 m

Year

2023 – 2025

Promoter

Monumental Underground Museum Society: William Mauricio Duque Corredor: Project Manager Jorge Armando Pérez Vergara Roberto Carlos Roa Cortes
William Mauricio Duque Runner – director of works
Jorge Armando Pérez Vergara
Roberto Carlos Roa Cuts

Design

Yemail Architecture

Project team in architecture, furniture and museography

Antonio Yemail Cortes
Ricardo Ernesto Daza Caicedo
Maria Natalia Carrero Rojas
Jimmi Camilo Palacio Guarnizo
Oscar Fernando Parga Quevedo

Structural design

Ivan Vergara

Lighting design

ESPELLA GROUP SAS

Geotechnical study:

Luis Felipe Carrillo

Electronic design

Diego Fernando Laverde

Supervision

Asdraldo Contreras

Human security

José Joaquín Álvarez Enciso

Civil work

Estoc Engineering SAS
Ing. John Alexander Guillen Martin
Ricardo Buitrago Fagua
Luis Fernando Olaya Rocha

Carpentry

Maderas y láminas especiales SAS
Rogelio Pabón Roa

Electrical work

CIEM SAS:
José Ignacio Murillo

Metal fabrication

Rusbel Rodriguez

Photo credits

Leonardo Finotti

Categories: 1.5 Infrastructure, Culture