Now in buildings, urban use prevails, but there are times when they become icons such as the Medellín Energy Living tower.
The new cities grow in height to avoid the consumption of land, increase its use, generate more economic benefits, show off engineering… The reasons are multiple, however, from China to Moscow, from New York to Buenos Aires, or from Africa to Europe, the precept is clear: more land consumption, less natural environment consumed. Let us not deceive ourselves by thinking of other bad taste affairs: urban growth must be vertical.
But the implementation of this precept always has to be related to sustainability and, of course, to good aesthetic taste, especially when its position within a city makes it predominant on the skyline. It happens with the new 23-level tower that in 2015 saw the light in El Poblado, Medellín, the most exclusive area of the populous Colombian city.
The new tower of El Poblado in Medellin
The property is the work of the architects M + Group, who have a very cool website, everything must be said. With more than 260 projects behind it, M + Group has masterfully executed the execution of this iconic work. On their website they tell us that they have built more than 1,300,000 square meters, among which are the more than 12,000 of this unique building, called by its creators Energy living. This name, in addition to being catchy, is very successful, as we will see in the following paragraphs.
The tower houses 71 apartments of different sizes and for different users, being able to satisfy the needs of couples or families. Specifically, the homes have between 53 and 130 square meters. In addition, a podium or base allows the creation of a spectacular lobby, generating space in this area to house a restaurant, administrative areas and several recreation rooms.
A square-shaped building that houses luxury apartments
Below this podium, four parking floors that supply the needs of the users of the buildings and some more. From there six rectangular prisms rise in different volumes and in different positions, prisms with different orientations from each other, generating facades with views depending on the space you are in. Isn’t that great?
The base is square in shape, with sides of 21 meters. From the center of this figure rise vertically the stairwell and the elevators, which serve as a channel for the common and private facilities. The project was the work of the architects Andrés Felipe Mesa Trujillo and Kevin García Alvis, with the collaboration of the architect Luna Barrientos and the structural engineer Diego Castro, who could not have carried out the work without the construction company: Javier Londoño SA.
This Medellín tower has apartments with 360-degree views
The spectacular design of the tower allows the appearance of apartments with West and East orientation, with their opposite, North and South orientation, and the luckiest ones with 360-degree views, the “between-prisms”, if they can be called that. To make an effective contrast, two antagonistic colors were chosen. On the one hand, white for the huge prisms, and on the other, black for the interior carpentry and the “between-prisms”.
The creation of this structure was born from paper. The designers visualized the tower by placing inside it the floors that the current legislation allowed them. From this point on, they grouped the levels, managing them differently and integrating them into prisms, which were separated by floors with four-sided terraces, so that their façade remained inside the rest.
On the top floor we find an infinity pool
Then they decided to which places the different facades «would open”, almost all in favor of the slight slope that defines this part of the city. Finally, a small displacement of each volume in different directions, enough to make it ostentatiously visible, but insufficient to overcomplicate the structural design, which would generate costs and not make it more aesthetic.
The best, of course, is located on the top floor of the building. not only because the best views are found in this part, but also because it is the place chosen to locate a fantastic infinity pool, a luxurious terrace and areas of enjoyment for users, such as a gym, a jacuzzi and a Turkish bath. You can find several apartments in the building on Airbnb at different prices and with images that can convince you to want to live there, even for a few days.
Another place where you can find images is on Instagram, where there are always those who make us “squeak our teeth” with envy at the spectacular views. In short, a building born to change the built environment, to improve the lives of users, and of those who are not, generating new spaces, green areas and level businesses. Bravo!!