How can a university thoughtfully expand and integrate into the urban fabric?

Universidad Libre in Bogota, Colombia, one of the country’s oldest private universities, tasked CAZA with tripling the school’s architectural footprint and integrating its sprawling urban campus into the built landscape of downtown Bogota.

Made up of several campuses, CAZA’s plan strategically incorporates pockets of green space throughout the campus by organizing the newly-designed buildings along an X-shaped axis of grass and trees. Along this axis, we plotted a variety of new facilities, including labs and administrative buildings. We then clustered the university’s key existing structures, including a 14,250 square meter sports stadium, existing laboratories, a sports club, and a building of classrooms.

Not only does the new plan organize disparate campuses into a more visible and coherent presence, it also allows for the creation of hybrid buildings that play host to university-affiliated startups, contributing to the University’s aspirations of forging closer connections between technology and academia.

• PROJECT TEAM: Carlos Arnaiz, Laura del Pino