BRASILIA MUSIC SCHOOL

Universidad Nacional de Colombia - Sede Medellín

Project idea

The purpose of the Brasilia Music School is to activate the edge of the park through a deep plinth and a building equipped with recreational-cultural activities

Project description

The main goal of the present project is to activate the southern border of the small neighbourhood park located next to the lot. Hence the volumetric intention to create a deep ground floor like a loggia and provide a covered service-filled area integrated with the public space. The building also recognizes the urban grain by adjusting its height to the existing adjacent building on the area where the lot is wider and the main entrance lies, but also by making a gesture by lowering the height and creating a terrace on the opposite side, directed to one of the main natural landmarks of Valle de Aburrá, the Alto de Boquerón (Mt. Boquerón).

The building is named after the Brasilia residential complex located at the other end of the park, and it’s proposed as a music school as a response to the large influx of students from nearby universities and high schools in the area, as well from inhabitants from the Suramericana residential complex east to lot, but that currently lack cultural-recreational activities. Thus, the necessity to create a building complex enough to house areas not only to teach, but to present musical events as well.

This way the building creates a diverse program, where the theoretical and more individual uses are above the more practical and collective ones, while being integrated around a central courtyard where the circulation lies and that also provides natural light and ventilation to every corner of the project. On the second basement is located a concert hall with a capacity of 151 people, and which is accessible through its own entrance, making it possible to operate independently from the rest of the building.

Technical information

Floor count: 6 (3 basements)
The project is consists of a post-tensioned concrete structure in order to bridge the large distance betweens supports structure. It is enclosed with a large tempered glass curtain wall in the ground floor to give a transparent and continuous feel of the urban space, and with a wooden brise soleil, modulated every meter alongside a module of tempered glass, giving the project a vertical language that blends in the existing buildings in its urban context.
The 1 meter module coordinates all the material finishes of the interior, ranging from floor and wall tiling, windows, ceilings, doors, and even the concert hall stands, creating a very armonic and elegant language.