Technology
CLOUD COLISEUM
COMPUTATIONAL ARCHITECTURE
CANOPY STRUCTURE
GIANCARLO MAZZANTI
Girardota, Colombia
A metropolitan coliseum for Girardota, Colombia will be placed over one of the country’s most prominent cordileras with a splendid view over the city. This competition entry proposes a cloud configuration which suspends itself over the mountain as a white translucent figure, balanced between sky and land. The Imagery and formal concept of this project was inspired by the photograph of a local artists the “Kissing Cloud”. Inserted into the complex fabric of informal settlements, the coliseum’s iconic figure becomes a new nodal point with its quality and symbolic dignity. Such catalytic models have been successful in the neighboring city of Medellín, where the presence and significance attached to an
architectural project ignites needed change, regenerating the site and providing a renewed sense of pride for the citizens. The formal proposal arose from various design research experiments in search for a modular and structurally feasible indicative of the “Kissing Cloud“. The design comprised an array of spheres enclosed by a single isosurface. Mathematically, each acts as a metaball in the system, with a position and strength that produce an attraction inversely proportional to the distance between them. The influence of an array of positive metaballs ult mately create a field that serves as the skin to the habitable rooftop, where the complimentary program is allocated.
