Evolving needs within our neighbourhoods demand the integration of novel facilities and amenities. Sometimes, this leads to new buildings coming up on sites that were earlier utilised as playspaces by children and at other times, this change manifests in the creation of commercial units on the lower floors of residential buildings. Whilst these changes benefit individuals and families by granting them safe habitats and enlivening the locality with commercial activities, the drawbacks of these supposed infrastructural developments are paramount, too. Some of these include cutting off trees for construction space, replacing open spaces with buildings and integrating cultural and commercial spaces without paying heed to traffic movement in the area.

While public and government bodies and agencies are culpable in ensuring the integration of optimum amenities—for all sections of the populace—within neighbourhoods, part of the responsibility rests on the designers, architects and clients of particular projects. A recently completed project in Bogotá, Colombia, namely Atelier Tropical House by Yemail Arquitectura poses as a pertinent example of thoughtful design within a well-populated and evolving locality in the city.

Atelier Tropical House rests on a site that previously housed a residential building. It is surrounded mostly by low-rise structures, with a few taller buildings breaking the monotony at intervals. Resting along the Calle 74a road of the city’s grid-style street plan, the structure’s rectilinear planning is harmonious with its proximal streets and structures. Its vaulted roof and staggered form, however, draw focus towards the building, while also enhancing the indoor experience with the provision of nooks for solitary reflections and communal interactions as well as disparate perforations that let diffused light indoors.

Yemail Arquitectura retained both the proportions and height of the first two levels, up to the initial six-metre band. For the third level, however, the architects incorporated a setback and a set of four-barrel vaults configured in concrete, which overlooks the communal terraces and visually connects different parts of the structure. The architects also preserved the original staircases connecting the first and second levels. By limiting the interventions on site, within the boundary of the older structure, Yemail Arquitectura delimits a residential design that does not occupy or run into zones demarcated to other properties or for other activities in the area.

For this project, the clients delineated a project brief detailing a mixed-use program. Further, the brief also delineated the need for a commercial zone on the ground floor (also referred to as the first level) and modular housing units that can be used individually or combined to form larger habitable units or workspaces for evolving needs.

The neighbourhood within which the mixed-use building is placed, has gradually transformed into an art district during the last decade, hence resulting in the inclusion of various multicultural elements in the locality. This transformation of Atelier Tropical House by Yemail Arquitectura is a reflection of the gradual change in the locality. Its name, too, hints at its climatic context and its multi-use status.

The current design for Atelier Tropical House, hence, encompasses five distinct units. These include a three-level apartment, a two-level apartment, a small single-level apartment, a commercial space and a gallery garage with a front garden. These spaces come together to create a dynamic mixed-use architecture that satisfies both residential and cultural needs and can alternatively be used for both purposes, in accordance with emerging needs. 

Adapting to the residential scale of the neighbourhood while also satisfying the brief posed the primary challenge for the architects. “The project addresses this through a design that becomes increasingly complex toward the interior, centred around a courtyard that regulates lighting, ventilation and visual connections. Developing effective mechanisms for coexistence proved to be one of the project's key challenges,” mentions an excerpt from the press release. Some other challenges faced by the team included the usage of traditional methods—with wooden formwork and sheets—to construct the vault and the employment of rotated brick pieces and custom bricklaying techniques to build the lattices and perforated screens.

As for the cultural activation on the ground level, one enters the building through a gardened porch on the southeast end of the building. Next to this space lies the garage, designed to alternatively function as a gallery space. The garage can seamlessly blend in with the front garden when needed, hence enhancing the multi-functional designation of the structure, appending its role within the cultural neighbourhood.

Upon entering the building, one is greeted by an expansive corridor that is integrated with seating and that may lead to the garage, the powder room, the workspace, the indoor garden, the hall, the living area and kitchen, the office space or the posterior patio, depending on the direction one chooses to saunter towards. One can also move to the upper floor via a spiral staircase or the dog-legged one. The access to all the zones, however, is dependent on their extant occupancies. They are designed to both become a part of private apartments or serve the purpose of common rooms.

While the three-level apartment is spread across an area of 170 square metres, the two-level apartment spans 150 square metres and the small single-level apartment offers 70 square metres of flexible space. The first apartment houses a kitchen, living room and patio on the north-west corner of the ground floor; a library, study room, a bridge that extends over the terrace and bathroom on the second level; and two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a terrace with laundry facilities on the third floor.

The second apartment, spread across two floors, houses a living-dining area on the ground level and a bridge feature, two bedrooms, two bathrooms and a terrace on the second floor. Lastly, the single-level apartment, placed on the ground floor on the rear end, includes a non-demarcated zone that can be configured as desired—into a bedroom or workspace.

With the integration of a slightly complex layout, one might speculate the level of privacy that such a design can ensure. These consternations are, however, laid to rest with the incorporation of various transition zones and perforated screens, both of which act as physical and visual buffers, respectively. While the front garden offsets the building from the street and the rest of the locality, the garage and commercial zone on the ground floor further act as buffers between the public and private spaces. The careful usage of opaque and transparent materials further ensures visual privacy of different zones, while also ensuring the inflow of natural light.

Further, the placement of the residential units around a courtyard promotes communal living. However, the utilisation of perforated brick screens also ensures partial privacy. “Around the idea of cultivating an Andean jungle inside a home in a city like Bogota, is the intention of thinking critically about the relationship with the territory and the local tradition of the use of the courtyard, resulting in an open and lush space where species of different sizes merge with the interior through the play of light and shadow. We like to think that this interior landscape shelters its inhabitants with an experience of disconnection in their personal and timeless space, being the preamble to a domestic dimension more linked to the cycles of life,” the studio shares with STIR.

In keeping with the context within which the building exists, Yemail Arquitectura utilised locally sourced materials in the refurbishment of the existing structure and the extension of the additional floor. These include various types of bricks sourced from both the Bogotá savanna and nearby artisanal brick factories. The original reinforced concrete structural system was, however, retained. The finishing palette of the structure includes cement, coloured surfaces, granite and wood elements, all of which are reflective of the local building traditions of Bogotá.

Yemail Arquitectura’s intervention in Bogotá exemplifies the integration of contextual and cultural elements and materials, adequate regard for the site, preservation of existing entities, incorporation of flexible zones, maintenance of privacy and the fostering of communal living within an altered and evolved building and locality.

Project Details

Name: Atelier Tropical
Location: Bogotá, Colombia
Architect: Yemail Arquitectura
Design Team: Antonio Yemail, José Fernando Cáceres, Martín Jiménez
Built-up Area: 466 sq m
Year of Completion: 2024