Monteria Tower.

Monteria is a mid-sized prosperous city in the northeast corner of Colombia.  Much of the surrounding land is farm and pastureland.  In the 1950’s the grandfather of our client began to develop the area, eventually becoming one of the city’s urban leaders, one of the largest landowners, and a prominent developer.  His son is continuing in the family business, with plans to turn a large area on the outskirts of the city into a vibrant mixed-use district. 

As part of that master plan, we were tasked with the design for an iconic tower to anchor the new business district. The current development in the area is mostly single family homes or duplexes, so the scheme is an attempt to negotiate between the scale of the block and the scale of the tower. Two additional residential towers were under construction on an adjacent lot; the tower portion of our proposal twists to orient itself with those towers. Additionally, to carry the spirit of the smaller residential scale to the towers, each apartment is designed to have ample outdoor terrace space to take advantage of the unobstructed views and the custom of living outside when the tropical weather permits. The deep terraces are intended to provide shading, while the louvered façade design provides views while mitigating the effects of heat gain.