It was on this day that we visited Torres Siameses, Alejandro Arevena’s glass tower on the PUC campus, as well as Elementals Innovation Center. On the metro ride back to our hotel we met a man who was a student at the University. We told him how much we enjoyed these buildings and he was amazed because it’s was so simple on the outside. We described to him the inner beauty of the building, the reason why us architecture students loved it so much. I really enjoyed the texture of the concrete created by the molds used to form it. It was really unique how they chose not to enclose all of the fixtures and workings of the elevator system, as well as the central atrium, making the building far more sustainable as a whole compared to Torres Siameses. In this building, the glass skin that Arevena intended to make the building more sustainable and create a convection current around the building, to save on energy, seemed to make the building even hotter. The design also provided for issues with maintenance, in the areas where windows were later added, the most noticeable aspect was how dirty the building was between the two layers.
My drawing of the concrete’s texture at the Innovation Center
I think it is awesome how willing people are to come up and start a conversation with us. This has happened to me multiple times. I think it was really cool that he even offered to give us a tour of his campus, the law campus. I think it’s funny that we come all the way from the United States to see these buildings and to the people here it’s no big deal. I personally really enjoyed the Innovation Center. I loved the contrast between the materials. Concrete is one of my favorite building materials, and I loved how it contrasted with the wood. I am surprised by how much wood they use here in their buildings. I really like it actually. The other thing that surprised me about the Innovation Center was the scale. The building is a lot bigger than it seems on the outside. The way the windows are created and parts are pushed or pulled in makes it feel as though the building is split into three main parts, when really there are nine floors. The other thing that threw me off on the scale was walking onto the balconies or looking down into them. They were soooo much bigger than they looked from outside on the ground. I really enjoyed getting to explore this building. Also, your sketch is amazing! I love the shading.
Yo that guy was great. I think he had a very wise perspective of the Innovation center. As he so poetically put it, “it’s just a box with holes in it. Even the holes are just boxes”. What an insightful man. He could see that the simple design and concrete surface were great choices in creating an efficient and appealing building. This building was actually one of my favorites of the trip in an architectural aspect. I really enjoyed the visible elevators and being able to see how all the cables and mechanics worked. It gave the traditional idea of hiding elevators away from people a twist, being loud and all. This also opened up the middle of the building and created a really cool space that allowed full view into each floor, but the rooms were also far enough away from the windows to provide privacy for those inside the rooms. This building was definitely better than the tech building (the Y-shaped one). The innovation center was much easier to control temperatures and ventilation, was much more spacious, and used the space it took more efficiently than the other building. So yeah that’s what I thought of the innovation center.