Project material
Solar urbanism with sustainability measures
Ábaco occupies a long lot in the Canelón district of Cajicá, in the middle of the Bogotá savanna: flat ground, a cold dry climate, greenhouses and pasture all around. Its western edge is defined not by a street but by a creek and its wooded floodplain; that edge became the soft side of the development, where the layout loosens and turns into parkland.
The layout was not drawn from the geometry of the lot but from the course of the sun. The main road crosses the site diagonally along the solar path, rotated ten degrees to the south, and the secondary streets hang off it at right angles. Those streets are offset from one band to the next: visual continuity is broken on purpose, and each street ends in a planted closure rather than a long vanishing line of asphalt. The result is eighty-eight houses arranged on parallel bands that all take the sun on the same face.
Outdoor life is organised as a circuit rather than a set of separate zones: a continuous pedestrian and cycle route runs around the whole perimeter, linking activity stations one after another — community vegetable garden, camping area, dog park, football pitch, tennis court, open-air theatre, children's area — until it closes on itself. Alongside it, the layout carries its own environmental infrastructure: rainwater collection, greywater recycling to the sanitary fixtures, and a recycling point beside the entrance.
More about the project›
Ábaco is a countryside condominium in Cajicá, Cundinamarca, in an area of the town from which the natural landscape can be contemplated and enjoyed; that environmental condition allowed the development of a project with sustainable urban and architectural criteria.
The project covers a total area of 57,000 m², of which 27,000 m² are common green areas that make integration with the landscape possible and host social and recreational activities.
The master plan separates vehicle circulation from the pedestrian route. The pedestrian circuit runs along the perimeter of the site, linking the outdoor sports and recreation areas with the gatehouse and community hall — buildings designed as pedestrian bridges that let residents move safely and without interruption.
Ábaco comprises eighty-eight houses over an urban layout designed from solar-orientation criteria, rigorously interpreting the sun's path: the main road faces west and the secondary roads run north–south, organizing the project so every house receives both morning and evening sun — using the climate to apply passive strategies of sustainability in the urbanism and inside the homes.
The project has a rainwater-reuse and greywater-recycling system that reduces water consumption in the houses, the community spaces and the irrigation of green areas.
The double-layer brick construction system used in the houses, the community modules and the gatehouse made it possible to build thermal mass into the envelope: the outer walls store heat during the day and release it at night, ensuring optimal thermal comfort indoors at no extra cost in structure or materials.
First the sun, then the streets.
The order of the decisions can still be read in the series of diagrams: first the lot and its creek, then the solar chart, and only then the first line of asphalt. Once the main diagonal was fixed, everything else followed from it — the perpendicular secondary streets, the offset that breaks continuity, the planted closures, the position and rotation of every house, the pedestrian circuit left over along the edges. The aerial night photograph shows that reasoning turned into a place: the lit bands follow the sun's diagonal, and the creek edge stays dark and green.
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The outline of the lot: a long rectangle whose only irregular edge is the creek to the west, which the project chooses to keep as a floodplain.
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The solar chart laid over the site. The main axis answers not to geographic north but to the path of the sun, rotated ten degrees to the south.
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Visual closure: every secondary street ends in a mass of trees, so the eye finds landscape rather than the end of the asphalt.
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The secondary streets hang perpendicular to the main road and drain movement toward the two long edges of the lot.
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Offsetting the streets breaks continuity from side to side: the straight corridor is avoided and each band gains privacy.
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Pedestrian and cycle routes are resolved as one continuous, uninterrupted circuit that embraces the development along its perimeter.
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The connection between spaces and functions: the circuit links garden, camping, dog park, courts, open-air theatre and children's area through stations.
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The siting of the houses: paired houses all turned toward the same solar face, with the football pitch and tennis court leaning on the park.
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Resource management: rainwater collection and greywater recycling to the sanitary fixtures, with the recycling point beside the entrance.
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- Category
- Urban Design
- Typology
- Urban master plan
- Year
- 2013
- Area
- 57.000 m²
- Program
- 88 houses
- Location
- Cajicá, Cundinamarca
- City
- Cajicá, Cundinamarca
- Status
- Portfolio
