Excerpt: Lauret, designed by Connatural + Terrarea, is a mixed use building stages for a harmonic interweave of domestic and social life. Laureles offers a vibrant social scene revolving around culture, education, and gastronomy. The building’s facade is a mixture of glass windows and exposed brick wall, arranged strategically to bring natural light and ventilation into each space, and following a seemingly random pattern to elicit the diversity of its interior spaces.
Project Description
[Text as submitted by architect] Dr. Francisco Luis Jiménez conceived “The Employee’s Neighborhood”. He entrusted its design to Master Artist Pedro Nel Gómez, who along with Artist Horacio Longas, finished the designs in 1940. Known today as Barrio Laureles, seventy years after its foundation, this neighborhood continues to strengthen its original idea of being home to a diverse population. The emblematic circular and diagonal boulevards that characterize Laureles’ urban layout, are still the stages for a harmonic interweave of domestic and social life. Laureles offers a vibrant social scene revolving around culture, education, and gastronomy.
Located near Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, the building embodies the heterogeneous character of the neighborhood, it mixes different kinds of spaces, ranging from the more traditional 1-, 2-, and 3-bedroom apartments, to the more modern adaptable lofts that could easily be converted back and forth between living and working spaces.
The elevators and a staircase are located in the back side of the building. The staircase gradually rises up the building, and each one of its landings is an overlook that frames the landscape with hanging gardens. The staircase also divides the building in two wings: the most traditional living spaces on the northwest wing, and the lofts on the northeast wing. Each floor of the northeast wing has seven 50m2 lofts that can be merged into a single 350m2 space. These spaces are being defined organically as the building gets gradually occupied. For instance, the 4th and 5th floors followed an open floor concept for a coworking office, while the top floors followed a more diverse configuration that combines living spaces with attorney offices, a funeral home, a dentist practice, and an architecture office.
The building’s facade is a mixture of glass windows and exposed brick wall, arranged strategically to bring natural light and ventilation into each space, and following a seemingly random pattern to elicit the diversity of its interior spaces. In addition to its living spaces and lofts, the building offers amenities such as a gym, two courtyards and a commercial area on the ground floor. This commercial area is surrounded by gardens to establish a fluid and friendly relationship with the neighborhood.
The top floor features apartments, two-story lofts, and a north-facing terrace that overlooks the city and its landmarks, such as the University’s campus and the Cerro El Volador, one of the two rolling mountains rising from the bottom of the Aburra Valley.