Breathing Envelope

Through the incorporation of intelligence in the mechanisms of the façade, Bogotá’s climate is leveraged to achieve comfort in the interior spaces. With a daily fluctuation from 0° to 23°C, the design challenge of the breathing façade can only be resolved with a highly technical approach, such as the one implemented in the project.

For Daniel Bermudez, winning the LafargeHolcim Awards for Ágora Bogotá highlighted the sustainable and environmental credibility of their proposal and boosted the client’s confidence. Read the full interview and jury member comments by Bruno Stagno (Costa Rica) and Harry Gugger (Switzerland).

Active envelope (English flip book)

Enveloppe active (French flip book)

Fachada active (Spanish flip book)

Jury comments

“The jury appreciated the active breathing envelope and the challenge that the designed solution presented. With the incorporation of certain intelligence in the mechanisms of the façade, Bogotá’s climate was used to achieve comfort in the internal spaces.” – Bruno Stagno, Architect & Principal, Bruno Stagno Arquitecto y Asociados, San José, Costa Rica; and Head of the LafargeHolcim Awards jury for Latin America in 2014.

“The authors sincerely aimed – but also truly managed – to overcome the alleged gap between architecture and engineering. The project offers proof that spatial considerations inherent to the discipline of architecture – light, movement, materiality, atmosphere, color, space, structure – can indeed be brought to bear on the technical exigencies required for a building’s environmental performance.” – Harry Gugger, Architect & Founder, Harry Gugger Studio, Basel, Switzerland; Professor of Architectural & Urban Design, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL Lausanne), Switzerland; and Member of the Board of the LafargeHolcim Foundation since 2010.

LafargeHolcim Awards open for entries

Design competitions boost projects, careers, and networking opportunities. The LafargeHolcim Awards seeks leading projects of professionals as well as bold ideas from the Next Generation that combine sustainable construction solutions with architectural excellence.

The 6th cycle of the international competition is open for entries until February 25, 2020. The Awards offer a total of USD 2 million in prize money and foreground projects and concepts from architecture, engineering, urban planning, materials and construction technology, and related fields. Enter your contribution to sustainable construction in the LafargeHolcim Awards – the world’s most significant competition for sustainable design.

More information

Enter the competition

Ágora Bogotá is set to be the first sustainable convention centre in Colombia with LEED™ Gold certification. The USD 120 million building represents the beginning of a deep urban transformation that aspires to change the dynamics of events and conventions in the region. With business tourists spending USD 410/day, or five times that of holiday travellers, the centre not only contributes to the hotels, restaurants, transport, private security, interpreter, event management, logistics and tourism sectors but is projected to contribute more than 1% of GDP to Bogotá’s economy within its first four years of operation, and host more than 200 large events per year.

The LafargeHolcim Awards jury praised the project for establishing a dialog between the fields of architecture and engineering, with both disciplines mutually informing one another, ultimately combining state-of-the-art technologies with formal expression. The deployment of high-tech mechanical systems is done with restraint, leading to an architecture that appears noble, quiet and discreet – technology not for technology’s sake, but at the service of users, architecture and the environment.

Ágora Bogotá features a 4,000-seat main exhibition area, up to 17 fully-equipped rooms for hosting multiple events for up to 2,500 people simultaneously. The on-site kitchen has a capacity to produce 2,000 meals, underground parking with 1,055 spaces, and an open-air pedestrian passageway linking to the existing exhibition centre of Corferias.

Construction required excavation of 135,000 square meters of earth; 59,558 cubic meters of concrete; 4,122 tons of steel; 437km of cables for electricity, fibre optic, internet, and telephony; 16,470 square meters of glass. The building is capable of circulating 95,000 cubic meters of air per hour using “active breathing” natural ventilation systems, as well as storing 56 cubic meters of rainwater used for flushing toilets.

Tourism for meetings and conventions accounts for almost one-third of total tourism revenues in Colombia according to the Minister for Commerce, Industry & Tourism, María Lorena Gutiérrez. “The opening of Ágora Bogotá is great news for tourism, and strengthens confidence in the sector”, she said.

Natural lighting and ventilation provide a level of comfort unparalleled in the convention center building type, with minimal energy consumption.

Rainwater collection, landscaping and a permeable covering of the surrounding public space complement the set of sustainable strategies.

Watch the timelapse video of the construction of the Ágora Bogotá.

Daily fluctuations in temperature of up to 20°C require a specific approach to climate control. The project focuses on the optimization of natural ventilation and lighting, supported by refined control systems, to achieve optimal energy efficiency. 

Progress: The equatorial mountain climate of Bogotá, with stable average temperatures (13.5°C) but high daily fluctuation (0 to 23°C), calls for a specific approach to climate control. Pursuing “free cooling”, a breathing glass façade captures fresh air, treats it acoustically, and by natural draft, circulates it through the building. The façade perspires, as its fairly high U-value (4.5 W/m2K) allows heat exchange. Ranges of screen prints provide low solar factors to critical areas and expose other areas to heat the building naturally. Temperature and CO2 sensors in the meeting rooms activate the motorized gills (Sp. branquias) which regulate air inlet and reveal the ventilation strategy. A weather station relates interior and exterior data, allowing the building to learn and improve its performance.

People: Initiated by a public-private partnership, Ágora Bogotá (Bogotá International Convention Center) aims to contribute to the economic, political and cultural development of the community, on local, regional and global scales. Its specific events, as well as the economic activity generated by its visitors, positions the complex as a powerful catalyst of urban and social change. The project draws on compactness and verticality to free-up missing public space for congregational and recreational use.

Planet: The project focuses on the optimization of natural ventilation and lighting, supported by refined control systems, to achieve optimal energy efficiency. The active façade offers low maintenance and a long life span. Native vegetation on the site enhances ecological corridors.

Prosperity: A convention center demands flexibility. The project favors vertical circulation, combines specialized and generic spaces and fits a varied event plan. A thorough cost and performance analysis resulted in minimum use of resources, without compromising the ambitious technical, architectural and environmental aspirations of the client.

Place: Ágora Bogotá settles in the midpoint of the city, halfway between the historic center and the airport. Expanding towards the main roads, the fairground district transforms an industrial area into a new centrality. Transparency is the primary aspect of the project, highlighting the structural over the decorative. Scarce materials, a continuous pavement, translucent ceilings and glass walls reveal its operation to the visitor. The concatenation of lobbies, halls, terraces and balconies mediate inside and outside and reveal the city’s view with its stunning mountain backdrop.