Bjarke Ingels Group and Uribe & Schwarzkopf have designed a 24-story rose-colored tower in Quito, Ecuador inspired by natural beauty, diversity, and the community of the city. EPIQ is BIG’s second building in the city, with a dynamic, porous structure clad in colored titles to echo the beauty of Quito, and to be the face of a new sustainable urbanism in the growing city.
Anchoring the southwest corner of the city’s La Carolina Park, the single tower is conceived as a “vertical city” that brings the dramatic natural environment of Quito into its structure, with vertical landscaping creating a synergy with the adjacent park. The varied sizes and configuration of the space’s mixed-use residential, corporate, and commercial units allow light and landscape to travel through the building, connecting the park and surrounding city.
The scheme reflects the colors and patterns of Ecuador, with its façade inspired by the earth tones and herringbone tiling seen throughout Quito’s Old City. The façade color also echoes the colors of the striking sunsets seen in the city, the Andean flora and fauna, and the weavings of the toquilla straw.
Throughout the building, a series of common exterior spaces correspond with key interior zones, which include feature pools, children’s play spaces, a squash court, a bowling alley, and a movie theater. The scheme also employs sustainable features such as a greywater treatment plant for reusing rainwater, a materials bank to reuse and reduce construction materials, and eco-efficient appliances.
The historical center of Quito with its red herringbone sidewalks is a bombardment of forms, geometry, typography, and color. At the south tip of La Carolina park, our aim is to create a three-dimensional community: a constellation of building volumes of different sizes that form a holistic whole offering the residents and their families a variety of sun-filled openings, passages, parks and pockets for play, social life, work, and enjoyment. As architects we are often a little afraid to play with color – in Quito, we thought it could be interesting to use color to accentuate the different building blocks and give each volume its own shade of red. IQON was our first collaboration with U&S and also our first project in Latin America. Joining forces on our second project, one can only begin to imagine the level we could take it to by continuing this inspiring collaboration.
-Bjarke Ingels
News via: Bjarke Ingels Group
