ORQUIDEORAMA
Colombia
Medellin 2005-2006
Design team:
Felipe Mesa + Alejandro Bernal (Planb architects)
Camilo Restrepo + J. Paul Restrepo
Architecture and organisms The Construction of an Orchideorama should
come up of the relation between architecture and the living organisms. It should
not make any distinction between natural and artificial; on the contrary, it
should accept them as a unity that allows architecture to be conceived as a
material, spatial, environmental organization that is deeply related to the
processes of life.
Two scales of the organic
The organic is understood in two different
scales, and each of them allows us to understand different aspects of the
project:
Micro scale: A scale that holds the principles of material
organization, defines geometrical patterns, it is nature living structures
configuration.
Visual – external scale: It allows us to relate
phenomenologically and environmentally to the world, and perceive, notice the
world.
The “organic” as material organization
The microscale of the organic, such
as its capacity to be organized in precise laws of geometry patterns (Direct
example: Honeycomb structure), allows us to build a single module (we call it
Flower – tree, which mean a flower form figure with the size and properties of a
tree), that when it becomes systematically repeated, it allows us to define
growing properties, its evolution and its adaptability. Its geometry.
The “organic” as environmental phenomena
The big scale of biomorphic
structures, and in this case specifically: Flowers or/and tress allows us to
define perception as a situation where visitors can feel the extension of a
forest, a shadow garden. In the other hand it allows us display a set of
technical facilities such as collecting water and to structure the modules as
hollow trunks.
Doing architecture as sowing flowers
We propose the Orchideorama to be built
as sowing flowers: One flower – tree grows, and just beside it, another will
appear, until the complete system of Flower – tree structures are defined. They
can grow or be sow where is possible, adapting its system structure to the field
where it is intended or needed.
An Orchideorama is not a storage facility structure
Industrial architecture is not the response to develop an Orchideorama. The Orchideorama is composed of 10 Flower – tree structures, that can be built individually, and allow the system grow or response to any uncertainties, such as budget, construction inconvenients or political decisions.
Three species of Flower – Tree structures. Lively Patios.
The Flower - tree
structure has three different contents according to is location and its
definitions. Each Flower - tree is “hollow” in the center and each of them
configures a small hexagonal patio.
The patios have three different
characters:
1. Flower – tree – Light (Small temporary gardens) 2. Flower – tree – plants
(Orchids, exotic and tropical flowers)
3. Flower – tree – animals (Feeding
birds facilities – butterfly breeding place)
