Fundación Universitaria Compensar
Bogotá, 2022-2024 | Under Construction 45.347 m² | Architectural design, Urban & Landscape design and technical coordination
Design: Ramón Bermúdez.
Design Team: Paula Sopó, Jaime Barrera, Luis Angel Rivera, Daniela Almansa, Isabela Parra, Andrés Rengifo, Camila Morales, Sofia Ortiz, Antonia Santos, Federico Chaparro, Valeria Galán, Natalia Acosta, Santiago Izquierdo, Daniela Chaves, Laura Rodriguez, Davi Villegas, Juliana Gutierrez, Carlos Santamaría, Loris Vendrami.
Construction: Constructora Obreval
Structural engineering: Aycardi Estructural
Geotechnical engineering : LFO, Luis Fernando Orozco.
Electrical engineering: SM&A, Jaime Sánchez.
Plumbing engineering & HVAC: Álvaro Tapias & Cía.
Acoustic Design: ADT Diseño & Tecnología, Daniel Duplat
Security Consultant: AGR, Jaime Andrés García.
Sustainability Consultant: Arquitectura & Bioclimática, Jorge Ramírez
Lighting Design: María Teresa Sierra Consultoría de Iluminación y Cia. S.A.S.
Vertical Circulation Consultant: Ing. Rafael Beltrán
The competition was based on the latent conflict between the lack of space in the city center and the great demand for secondary education facilities. The result is the increasingly common creation of vertical campuses in various locations in the expanded city center. In this case, the client owns a well-proportioned parcel of land at an important intersection of two major avenues on the northwestern edge of the expanded downtown. It becomes a very good place to make a university because of its location and accessibility and being on the edge of the center the land costs are not so high. Given the size of the lot, the university had to be vertical and our winning proposal was based on a strong rationale and proposed to stack vertically the different faculties of the university to create a true vertical campus. For this we proposed a 60x60mt cube and 15 floors high with the sports facilities on the roof. The most complex issue, i.e. the vertical circulation of students, is done by means of a linear core of 6 elevators in the center of the cube and distributed to all levels of the university. Two restroom areas and technical rooms attached to the elevators and four evacuation stairways at the corners make up the free zones for classroom or office areas or university lounge and meeting areas.
Each level changes according to the program of the different entities that make up the faculties and on each floor communal use spaces of double heights are generated for rest, study or communication. Complete floors of classrooms and study areas, a complete floor dedicated to the library or office floors always mixed with recreational spaces or double-height terraces make up the main distribution of the volume.
The structural grid, as well as the entire layout of the facilities, has been judiciously studied to achieve great efficiency throughout the complex and to allow maximum flexibility in the future.