The Mayor's Office of Bucaramanga, together with the Colombian Society of Architects, sought innovative proposals for the orderly and sustainable development of Bucaramanga's urban peripheries in Colombia. Through viable, long-term management, financial, social participation, and regulatory models, the initiative aimed to foster the creation of a “Nuevo Norte” (New North) as a key central hub for the city and its metropolitan area, serving as an epicenter for inclusive, cohesive, productive, biodiverse, connected communities with high-quality habitats.
The public ideas competition for the territorial occupation model of the municipality's North Border aimed to gather urban proposals that integrate the needs and opportunities of both rural and urban environments. In this competition, the jury—composed of José Alejandro Gómez Suárez, Giovanna Vittoria Spera Velásquez, Helga María Rivas Ardila, Diana Wiesner Ceballos, and Manuel Sánchez Ruiz—awarded first prize to TA – El Taller De Arquitectos. Read on to learn more about the winning project.
First Prize
Project description courtesy of the architects. This is a custom-tailored vision for Northern Bucaramanga, based on a detailed analysis of its territory and conscious of global and local opportunities, challenges, and needs. The proposal seeks to balance the region's development by leveraging natural systems to transition toward a less linear model that is better adapted to the forces impacting human environments.
The project rethinks “green” not as an optional addition, a desirable enhancement, or a token gesture toward biodiversity, but as a fundamental part of the solution. Fostering a transformation toward more climatically and socially vital and resilient urban landscapes is the core of our regenerative urbanism model for northern Bucaramanga: Living Landscape. To achieve this, we employ blue-green infrastructure—a strategic tool for climate adaptation and mitigation, and a vital instrument for nature conservation and spatial planning across natural, rural, and urban environments.
The objective is to design and plan blue and green infrastructure that improves urban efficiency, reduces localized risks, provides high-value environmental services, contributes to community well-being, and lowers implementation and maintenance costs. Additionally, these systems will support local food production, mitigate heat island effects, improve water pollution control, offer recreation, promote biodiversity, generate jobs for residents, and ultimately enhance overall quality of life. This is achieved by developing typologies with integrated construction systems and materials, using advanced digital technologies to design buildings conceived from a circular economy model.
These systemic innovations will support circular economies in city-building. Given that construction accounts for over three-quarters of global emissions and environmental degradation, the residential typologies aim to utilize integrated building systems and materials based on renovation, reuse, and disassembly. By leveraging advanced digital technologies for circular economy-based building design, the project implements more effective resource use and solutions. It addresses how our future circular living landscape can reduce adverse environmental impacts, while delivering site-specific, adapted systemic solutions for resilient, mixed-use buildings and neighborhoods.
For the new development areas, the proposal outlines four zones defined as urban-landscape projects in their own right. To define them, a detailed analysis of slopes, ecological corridors, local topography, and existing conditions was conducted. This identified the areas suitable for occupation and those destined to strengthen the blue-green infrastructure, the public space network, and climate change adaptation strategies. Furthermore, these areas will unlock the landscape potential of the New North, where the natural environment guides the layout of human systems.
The first zone, extending from the Suratá Valley toward the northwestern mid-slope, is the Sustainable Integrated Districts - Eco-neighborhoods system. Rather than merely bordering the creeks, these districts originate from them, situated in an exceptional geography. Functioning as superblocks, they form building clusters around shared spaces that, woven with green and blue elements, structure sustainable neighborhoods.
Along the mid-slope, the Agro-productive Districts feature low-density, low-rise clusters. Designed as small villages dotting the landscape, they share agricultural land in a cooperative model to produce organic food and foster a fair-trade market cycle.
Finally, the Ecological Park project is a green ring designed to implement nature-based solutions to protect creek headwaters. It establishes an environmental buffer zone for biodiversity conservation, connecting to the D.R.M.I. through designated ecological corridors that descend toward the Suratá Valley. Here, the fourth project, the River Park, emerges to weave a network of open spaces and urban corridors leading toward the western escarpment and the banks of the De Oro River.
This article was written by Agustina Iñiguez. The translation is powered by AI.
