7 de Agosto Kinetic City

Architecture is a process of dynamic change. Dynamisms and change imply the design of adaptation over time. Movement and adaptation create machine-hybrid architecture. In Bogotá’s deep urban structure, Chapinero is an attractor of agents, activity and mobility, it’s an exchange hotspot. Inside it, 7 de Agosto, Lourdes, Galerías and Universidades are commercial exchange nuclei. Specifically, 7 de Agosto commercial and residential zone developed around the marketplace, but nowadays it’s the central car repair zone of the city, and the static superficial transformation of space concerning the activity has altered the urban life of the zone.

To face this challenge architecture has to be a ‘Versatile Field’ that enables action and change. From Cardistry (the art of juggling cards) possibilities of movement were extrapolated to architecture. The renovation of the car repair zone of 7 de Agosto was structured by an urban park and a mobility repair system integrated into the building’s base floors. Through the superposition of systemic tissues (green, commercial, water, pedestrian) a city of movement and diversity was enabled. Focusing on the public realm multiple spatial interventions were designed ensuring movement and dynamism.