Fabrica de Cultura: Escuela Distrital de Artes y Tradiciones Populares de Barranquilla | Barranquilla, Colombia | 2013

ETH Zürich Architecture and Lead Team: Prof. Alfredo Brillembourg & Prof. Hubert Klumpner, Lea A. Ruefenacht, Diego Ceresuela, Marie Grob, Sofia Avramopoulou, Marta Domenech, Maria Paula Celia, Melanie Imfeld
Universidad del Norte Architecture: Prof. Manuel Moreno, Prof. Fabian Amaya, Gusielle Garcia

A project by ETH (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology) and UN (Universidad del Norte Barranquilla).

In collaboration with SECO (Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs), IDB (Inter-American Development Bank), FINDETER (Colombian Institution for Territorial Development)

CREDITS by institution

ETH Zürich (Swiss Federal Institute of Technology)

Architecture and Lead Team: Prof. Alfredo Brillembourg & Prof. Hubert Klumpner, Lea A. Ruefenacht, Diego Ceresuela, Marie Grob, Sofia Avramopoulou, Marta Domenech, Maria Paula Celia, Melanie Imfeld
Structural Engineering: Prof. Philippe Block, David Lopez, Marcel Aubert, Tomas Mendez E. 
Sustainability Engineering: Prof. Arno Schlueter, Jimeno A. Fonseca, Prageeth Jayathissa
Sun Studies: Prof. Gerhard Schmitt, Estefania Tapias

Universidad del Norte:
Architecture: Prof. Manuel Moreno, Prof. Fabian Amaya, Gusielle Garcia
StructuralEngineering: Prof. Andres Guzman, Osvaldo Guzman
MechanicalEngineering: Prof. Antonio Bula, Jose Solano
ElectricalEngineering: Prof. Daniel Soto, Prof. Rafael de Jesus Castillo
HydraulicEngineering: Prof. Augusto Sisa
TransportEngineering: Prof. Victor Cantillo, Boris Goenaga
CostControl: Prof. Luis Villadiego
Security and Communication: Prof. Lacides Ripoll

RCRD Studio: Ricardo Vives, Pedro Otero, Daniela Cohen.
Graphic Designer: Rudi Bauer

Municipality of Barranquilla:
Mayor Alejandro Char Chaljub, Culture Secretary Juan Jose Jaramillo, Luis Garcia, Lucas Rodriguez,
(Former Team: Elsa Noguera, Afif Siman, Paola Sarabia, Yehoshua Sanchez)

SECO (Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs):
Dagmar Vogel, Cliff Hammer, Jerome Wieser, Christian Sieber, Natalia Mayorga, Gregoire Labhardt, Nicole von Reitzenstein.

IDB (Inter-American Development Bank):
Ellis Juan, Andres Blanco, Horacio Terraza, Ramiro Lopez Ghio, Oswaldo Porras

FINDETER (Colombian Financial Institution for Territorial Development):
Luis Fernando Arboleda, Maria del Rosario Hidalgo, Paulo Sanchez, Maria Lourdes Lacouture, David Montero, Vanessa Alvarez

EDA (Escuela Distrital de Arte y Tradiciones Populares):
Yino Marquez, Cristian Pacheco, Alejandro Navia, Eliseo Barraza, Helda Diaz, Gustavo Quintero, Eder Hernández, Mario Zapata, Nivaldo Castro, Emilio Zapata, Einar Escaf, Ana Roman

SENA (Colombian National Apprenticeship Service):
Rafael de la Rosa, Alex Barranco, José Colonna

The project "Fábrica de Cultura" is an arts school to be built in the heart of Barranquilla, Colombia. The Block Research Group is contributing to this joint research project with the development of an innovative structural system: the auditorium vaulted structure. The project seeks to become a prototype of efficient, economic and sustainable construction for the region.

The structure of the auditorium consists of a ribbed thin-tile vault spanning a space of 20 by 40 meters. The structural design implies novel form-finding tools that combine funicular (compression-only) and acoustical optimization. Innovation in the constructive processes allows the integration of isolation and ventilation mechanisms in between the layers of the vault.