Project material
- Category
- Multifamily Housing
- Typology
- Non-subsidized housing
- Partner
- Arq. Santiago Mazabel, Arq. Julián Ardila, Arq. Manuela Vélez
- Year
- 2011
- Area
- 14.500 m²
- Program
- 88 apartments
- Location
- Chía, Cundinamarca
88 apartments in Chía that give back above the ground they take
We designed Ecohaus for Mojica Constructora: 88 apartments in two blocks in Chía, near Bogotá, that return the ground they occupy as roofs, walls and gardens. We won the commission in a private competition in 2011. The site sits in the town centre, on the narrow strip of the Bogotá Savanna (the high plateau around the capital, above 2,500 m) between the eastern hills and the church of La Valvanera. It is irregular and comes already split by a neighbouring plot that reaches Calle 12, and the climate is the savanna’s: cold mornings, hard midday sun, afternoons that cloud over at once.
The central decision was taken in the first site-planning sketch, while it still cost little: measure the planted topsoil the towers would remove and give it back to the project. That layer now lives on the roofs, which are walkable and planted, in a five-storey vertical garden climbing one corner of the façade, and in the entrance gardens. Each green surface has a job: it supports biodiversity, holds back rainwater, reduces the heat-island effect and insulates the roof, which on the savanna is where most heat is lost at night. Parking was sunk into a half-basement so the ground floor stays free around a central park, which the design report calls the heart of the complex.
Water and air follow the same rule. Greywater from showers and washing machines and rainwater are collected, treated and returned through a separate network to every toilet, for an estimated 45 % water saving. The ventilation towers on the roof move air out of the apartments through temperature and pressure differences, while bathrooms and kitchens also have their own mechanical extraction. Hot water comes from gas boilers, with ducts and space set aside to switch to solar thermal panels without redoing the installations. This is what we call regenerative architecture: a building that, beyond reducing its impact, restores water, soil and vegetation to the place it occupies. It is built and lived in today.
Under that green layer lies a structural decision. The load-bearing wall system repeats the same floor plan throughout a building and has left a repetitive cityscape behind it. Instead, we drew a standard-span frame with precast hollow core slabs and a combinable “habitable module”: half a module, one, or several per home. Construction proceeds by assembly, with industrialised slabs, metalwork and windows, and because the service ducts are standard, each home can plug in anywhere in the structure. Thermal mass, passive solar gain and waste separation ducts from every kitchen complete the system.
More about the project›
In collaboration with: Arch. Santiago Mazabel, Arch. Julián Ardila and Arch. Manuela Vélez
Ecohaus arises as an act of reflection on conventional multifamily housing developments in Colombia; it is a project grounded in flexible design around good bioclimatic architecture practices and sustainability strategies.
The project stands as a formal and spatial alternative to the conventional industrialized systems used to build multifamily housing, which have consolidated a repetitive, rigid and monotonous urban landscape.
“Families are not all alike” was the premise behind the design of the housing units. The answer was a modular solution that fosters adaptability through a flexible system: the housing blocks arise from a frame structure with standard spans, allowing one or two spaces to be developed within each bay.
The possibility of joining half a module, one module or several yields homes tailored to each user's needs. The module is complemented by a duct system that carries the utilities and both natural and mechanical ventilation.
The standardization of the system lets the different apartments “plug in” anywhere in the structure, so each inhabitant can choose their preferred location. The duct system can be inspected from the corridors, easing maintenance and minimizing disruption to daily life in the units.
Through its constructive proposal, Ecohaus questions conventional building systems and proposes a prefabricated structure of hollow-core slabs which, given the modular condition, achieves a high level of industrialization and therefore of resource optimization.
Ecohaus carries sustainability as its banner, understood as the most responsible way of approaching an architecture that preserves natural resources: it interprets the conditions of the environment to formulate spatial and formal solutions consistent with the place.
Chía's climate is moderately cold, which is an advantage in the pursuit of thermal comfort and makes it possible to rely on passive bioclimatic strategies alone.
Facades, sections and architectural floor plans of the typical tower.
One module, many families
The starting point was a discomfort: complexes built with load-bearing walls force the same floor plan to repeat storey after storey, and families are not all alike. The answer was structural before it was decorative. With a standard-span frame and precast slabs, the plan is no longer tied to the walls and the module appears. It is a single dimension that works for parking below and for sleeping above, and it can be taken in halves, singly or in groups depending on what each household needs. The same logic left service ducts inspectable from the corridors and made the communal spaces fold into each other: workrooms that turn into a party room, and a shared laundry that frees floor area inside every home. The project was published in Revista Escala 232 (2015), in its Projects and In Detail sections, and in Camacol’s Razón de Ser magazine (2017).
The site. An irregular 5,450 m² site in the centre of Chía, split by a neighbouring plot that reaches Calle 12. Two blocks. Two five-storey blocks over a half-basement car park, so the ground floor stays free for a central park. The module. A frame every 5.85 m and standard ducts: each home takes half a module, one or several, and plugs in anywhere. Ground given back. The planted layer the blocks displace returns as planted roofs: biodiversity, retained rainwater and less heat. Water and air. Roof towers ventilate the homes by thermal draught, and recycled rainwater and greywater save about 45 % of the water.
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The site plan in one drawing: morning and afternoon sun on the two blocks, views to La Valvanera and the hills, roof ducts, and modules that add up according to how many people live in each home.
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Insolation analysis across the façades: it measures the radiation each window receives, to decide where it is worth capturing sun and where to shade.
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Sun study of the two blocks between midday and six in the evening, checking that the central courtyard and the inner façades keep their light at the end of the day.
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Where the module comes from: the 5.85 metres (19.2 ft) taken up by two cars are also the width of a double bedroom; the same grid serves the basement and the home.
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Two ways of industrialising: above, the type plan repeated unchanged; below, the modular conception that allows half a module, one or several to be joined into different homes within the same structure.
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The site during assembly, seen from above: the hollow core slabs arrive ready from the factory and rest on the frame; the building grows by assembly rather than by pouring.
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What the building takes below it gives back above: the towers’ footprint is measured on the site, and that layer moves up, planted, to the roofs of the finished project.
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Breakdown of the community hall: a low volume beneath a sloping, planted roof that gives back as walkable garden the surface it occupies.
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The roof is one more floor in the open air: a stone path between planters and ventilation towers, with the hills of Chía behind.
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Water in section: rain from the roof and greywater from showers and washing machines run down dedicated ducts, are treated and return to the toilets, for an estimated 45 % saving.
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The towers’ draught: wind sweeping the roof draws on the vertical ducts; fresh air enters through the façades, rises warm and leaves through the towers’ mouths, with no fans.
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Waste separation: the kitchens are designed to sort four fractions (glass, organic, paper and plastics, the rest), and each tower sends them down three independent chutes to the collection point.
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