Encuentros

The loss of the notion of collectiveness in Medellin has converted housing projects as individual pieces within a network of roads and little fences that doesn´t allow the construction of a city for people. As a consequence of the long period of violence suffered by the people of Medellin and the widespread feeling of insecurity, gated communities have been removed from their schemes the gaps between the street as a place of public and housing as the representation of private. This has encouraged the formation of groups of strangers coexisting in the same space but not knowing each other or being related to their neighbors.

We consider an essential core to restore "the Community" and "public" senses fostering encounters using architecture as a tool. We value the culture of contact and we want to build spaces as thresholds that serve as places for exchange and promote the relationship between people. Places with no particular purpose for meeting and socialization.

We are also interested in the encounters between man and nature. Being in touch with the geography, vegetation and landscape is a constant search based on the understanding of the site. Aware of the weather and the privileged geographical location of Medellin we try to circulate in our buildings facing forests, streams and trees and making the wind, sun and rain part of the inhabiting.

To involve the house in the neighborhood and bring the neighborhood to the house is our main goal. We appreciate the expressions of the "informal" architecture of the city and we reinterpret its stairs, corridors and terraces assessing their ability to build community. It is critical in our thinking processes to link housing with the city, integrating as far as possible complementary uses that stimulate and enrich the urban street life. Encounters is an abstraction of the elements around which Obranegra Architects makes their work.