Atrio de Pance

Conscious densification

Pance is the edge where Cali meets the mountains: a leafy, warm-climate sector on the southwestern side of the city, in Valle del Cauca. There, on a site reached from Carrera 122 toward Avenida Cañasgordas, the project lives alongside a watercourse to the north whose protective forest strip — thirty meters on each side — is kept as the natural boundary of the compound.

The strategy gathers all the housing into a single ten-story tower that steps down as it rises: eight apartments per floor up to the eighth level and four on the last two. That setback opens a communal terrace on the ninth floor, facing the landscape, and allows seventy-two apartments in two compact unit types without taking over the rest of the site.

At ground level, shared life is split between two low buildings: a curved one holding the lobby, coworking space, functional gym, cycling simulators, games room, social lounge and BBQ terrace above a parking basement; and a pool pavilion with a kiosk leaning against the existing trees. The facades work exposed cappuccino-colored brick and perforated screens of the same material over industrialized concrete walls.