The Next Generation 4th prize for Latin America went to Protective Canopy in Colombia – Landscape revitalization and botanical pavilion by Jhon Janer Salazar Ruiz, Juan Camilo Muñoz, and Lina Fernanda Valencia Lozano, students at the University of Valle, Cali, Colombia.

Southeastern Bogotá has been the scene of illegal mining for many years. The hills are also home to the Entre Nubes ecological park, a habitat for many endemic animals and plants. The project by Lina Fernanda Valencia Lozano, Juan Camilo Muñoz, and Jhon Janer Salazar Ruiz,students of architectureat the University of Valle in Calí,envisages the construction of a botanical pavilion that traces the natural contour of the hills and is perfectly embedded into the landscape. The lightweight structure uses steel cables anchored to opposing quarry walls. Vertical ties anchored to foundations provide stability to the tensile structure. The building is enveloped with a polymeric skin. The pavilion houses plant species crucial to the Colombian ecosystem, the greenhouse becomes a public educational facility. The determined yet gentle architectural gesture intended to mend a wound in the landscape greatly impressed the jury.

“It is both an aesthetic answer and an answer that is particularly well integrated into its natural and landscape context,” explains Marilyne Andersen. Co-author Juan Camilo Muñoz says the prize also opens up an opportunity on a larger scale: “With the LafargeHolcim Award we can expose architecture as a method of intervention and response to solve an environmental problem.”

Media Release (English) – Latin America: Responses to pressing challenges

Comunicado de Prensa (Spanish) – Latinoamérica: Respuestas a desafíos urgentes