GALLERIES AND ARTIST STUDIOS IN QUITO
TYPE, MORPHOLOGY, MATERIAL CULTURE
In Between Pitched Roof and Modernist Slab—examines the urban legacy, decline, and future opportunities of the Spanish-American colonial grid. It focuses on the typological tropes and morphological elasticity of the colonial block as a point of departure to imagine new urban development in the context of a historically charged site.
FRACTAL BLOCK—Key to the Spanish-American urban grid was the fractal design of its city block, which involved a subdivision method where the blocks, which were initially dimensioned for a single monastery, were subdivided in multiples of four—through the introduction of the small patio and the zaguan— to accommodate more domestic uses.
Historic center of Quito
CULTURAL ANCHOR—The project, an essay on urban morphology, architectural typology, and material culture, challenges the framework of intervention in the World Heritage historic core of Quito where a guardian institution is proposed to set the stage for restoration and preservation in a centenary block.
TWO HOUSES define the perimeter of the block and negotiate the insertion of the project in context. TWO PAVILIONS activate the interior public space and articulate a sequence of two courtyards. A TWO-STORY modernist bar bridges the houses and underlines the roof-scape.
PUBLIC SPACE—The project aims to activate the interior of the block and make it publicly accessible so as to reveal its entire dimension and depth. The sequential layering of colonial houses—first bay, zaguan, first and second courtyard—is applied at the scale of the block to create new public route on the ground floor.
Ground floor
TYPE-IMAGE—The pitched roofs enclose habitable spaces and blend with the horizontal slabs of the linear bar. In these spaces, in between pitched roof and modernist slab, both typologies merge and create some unique moments in the building.
Roof
L1
Ground floor
COURTYARD GALLERY—One of the two pavilions is a double-height exhibition space. There, it is possible to perceive the block in its entire dimension, and this offers a glimpse of art to the passers-by that cross the public courtyard above.
LOCATION
Quito
PROGRAM
Art galleries
Date
2018
TEAM
Francisco Ramos