Located in the urban perimeter of the city in a lot of 6.5 Hectares, Entreverde seeks to become a paradigmatic model of sustainable urbanism build on a dense, compact, mixed and green city, in which the public space becomes a pedagogical and productive environment that relates ecosystems, communities, culture and ICT (Information and Communication Technologies).
The main objective of the project is to spin three elements ignored by the people from Fusagasugá:
- The historic cobbled path to Cuja (departmental heritage)
- 2 Quebrada el Mosqueral with its pier
- La Quinta Jaramillo Arango (designed by Vicente Nasi and built in 1935 as the first Modern Style house in the country).
The strategy is to create a lineal park that takes as reference Bogotá’s Parkway in proportions and uses (housing, culture, low impact shops, and public centers). This assignment is the backbone of the project and links private development lots around an arborized public space that combines pedestrian paths, bike paths and vehicular roads with gardens and forests. In fact, connecting the project with the main road structure of the municipality allows the park to be used by anyone and reveals what used to be an old family farm: The old modern house will now provide cultural and recreational services.
One of the design premises is to abolish the noxious fence as the skin of the private space. An active border is then proposed for the housing complexes with a two-story platform with commercial areas and places for permanence in an open front yard with trees and tables. The goal is to bring back life to the public space and allow its appropriation, in a process of co-creation.
The project was thought of as a system in which residents interact with the distant and nearby landscapes at different scales. The urban design comes from connecting pre-existing natural and cultural qualities, respecting the existing arborization and creating a landscape of native species that allow comfort (inside and outside), while promoting new biotic relationships through a green corridor. Therefore, patios, balconies, green lawns, front yards, terraces, parks, and squares are all methods of the same strategy that (with support from local administration) seeks to re-humanize and re-naturalize a city that has grown quickly and out of order.
This private initiative project is a commitment to an open, pedestrian and democratic city with the qualities of an ecological, serene and harmonious life. Entreverde is life more than housing.
