The 2009 Curry Stone Design Prize is awarded to a bold and ambitious public works plan for the Colombian city of Medellín that helped revitalize its poorest neighborhoods and transform what was considered the deadliest city in the world into a vibrant, urban hub.
In just four years, Alejandro Echeverri, then-director of urban projects, and Sergio Fajardo, former mayor, led the charge for urban renewal, supported by a vast team of architects, technicians and community members and buoyed by Fajardo’s belief that, “Our most beautiful buildings must be in our poorest areas.” Today, Medellín’s transformation has become a model for other cities in the developing world.
Beginning in 2004, Echeverri and Fajardo led teams of renowned architects to build a series of visually striking libraries, schools, parks and science and cultural centers in some of Medellín’s most impoverished neighborhoods. Each project was built in consultation with local neighborhood residents, and paired with sweeping social programs, including education and micro-lending to small businesses, to rout the city’s deeply entrenched social inequalities. “From the beginning, we involved the people in the activity of using public spaces to solve social problems and to change the lives of the community,” said Echeverri.
A number of these projects have become landmarks of the city, including the Orquideorama, a 42,200-square-foot structure whose defining feature is a soaring, fractal-like canopy of wood-framed hexagons that shelters the Botanic Garden’s orchid collection and houses cultural events. One of the Medellín’s most visited attractions is the iconic Parque Biblioteca España, which resembles three massive, etched black boulders and is perched in the hilltops of Santo Domingo, a barrio once notorious for drug violence.
Echeverri and Farjardo also helped extend the city’s modern railway system by building an elevated gondola tramway that connects some of Medellín’s poorest and most isolated neighborhoods to the rest of the city. Today, residents from the sprawling hillside slums of cinderblock shacks have more opportunities to take advantage of schools and the growing construction, textile, and tourism economies of the city.
These architectural and urban projects have “changed the skin of the city,” in Farjardo’s words. A guiding principle of these public works projects was el efecto demonstrativo, or using the “power of example” –- in this case, the dramatic symbolism of modern architecture -- to instill a sense of pride and possibility in the minds of local residents and beyond.
Echeverri and Fajardo’s social programs and their faith in the galvanizing power of design and architecture has been credited for contributing to a decline in crime. According to national statistics, the number of homicides dropped from a peak of 381 for every 100,000 inhabitants in 1991 to 29 in 2006.
Leaders worldwide have taken note. Today, both men are in high demand to speak at conferences throughout Latin America, Europe and elsewhere, as advisors to governments in cities such as Caracas, Guadalajara and Lima, Peru who view Medellín’s transformation as a possible blueprint for charting the future of their own communities.
Profile by Fenton Communications New York
