Quito Architecture
Narcisa Flierl
Hailing from a rich Jewish family in Prague, Kohn and his brother Otto completed a number of outstanding architectural projects in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s-30s. They designed villas and residential tenement houses as well as the interiors of apartments, shops, and cafes. The Kohn family, who were originally headed to Argentina, ended up in Ecuador because it had a better immigration policy.
Kohn and his wife Vera settled in the Mariscal district, where he built dozens of private residences during the 1950s. The Czech architect combined his Prague functionalist experience with the new cultural and climatic environment of Latin America by including larger glass surfaces and pitched over-hanging roofs to protect the interior against the sun. Undoubtedly the most significant of his works is his house Casa Kohn, which he completed in 1951 and inaugurated with President Galo Plaza. The award-winning building was the most modern structure in the country with smart built-in furniture, a glazed conservatory, a stone fireplace, and wrought iron lamps and railings.
Czech architect Otto Glass Pick mainly designed structures for young artists, such as a studio for painter Jan Schreuder in 1957 and a house and gallery for artist, folk art collector, and retailer Olga Fisch in 1952, which still exists today. Some of the original features of the Olga Fisch Folklore Flagship Store remain intact such as the curved wooden staircase with its built-in shelves and a stone-clad wall with a built-in fireplace. A combination of pure modernist lines and rustic vernacular elements is typical for both Pick and Kohn.
The postwar period brought modern construction techniques to Quito. The use of thin concrete vaults, predominantly influenced by the experimentation of Flix Candela in Mexico, can also be seen in number of interesting structures around the Ecuadorian capital. In 1959, Alejandro Segovia designed an expressive parabolic concrete canopy in front of Hotel Quito as an elegant sharp-edged roof. Similar forms characterize the former gas station pavilion El Ejido by Agustn and Fabin Patio, designed in 1961. Its roof is covered in multicolored ceramic mosaic. Edificio de la Cruz Roja (1955-1957) by the brothers Enrique and Lionel Ledesma stands out for its organically curved faade.
Milton Barragn Dumet is one of the few representatives of 20th century Ecuadorian architecture whose work has been published in an international context. He still works in his office, where he welcomed us with a friendly smile. Located in the Barranco residential and office complex he built in 1993, his office still produces high quality work that are loyal to his idealistic visions.
In opposition to the strict modernist and raw Brutalist tendencies of the 1960s, the next generation of architects became interested in global alternatives. They were influenced by a natural sensibility for materials and the revival of traditional construction techniques, found in the indigenous culture and colonial architecture, in new forms. Iglesia Luterana, built by Max Ehrensberger in 1959, in the Mariscal neighborhood reflects this recess of International Style in favor of a more rustic and regionalist aesthetic. The whitewashed brick structure uses natural materials and unobtrusive details to merge with its surrounding.
The new vernacular tendencies, which opposed radical modernist theories, were practiced mainly by a collective of architects called Grupo 6, including Juan Espinoza, Rodrigo Samaniego, Rubn Moreira, Mario Solis, and Fernando Jaramillo. Casa Araceli, built by Solis in 1973, with its whitewashed bricks, wood, and angled sloping roofs defines this vernacular movement of the 1960s-70s.
We were also lucky enough to spend a few nights in Carlota, a modern environmentally friendly hotel by Veronica Reed and her partner Renato Solines. Housed inside an historical palace in the old center of Quito, the hotel was designed by Reed with the help of her studio VIVA Arquitectura and Sustainable Design Studio. They undertook the sensitive renovation of the historical architecture, adding a fresh layer of contemporary design. While the impressive atrium works as a lobby and public area, the rooms are furnished with modern furniture and highlighted with a combination of rustic materials and earthy tones.
From the changing seasons to the users' interactions, there is almost an infinite set of facets of the architectural project that can be represented through film, and many photographers have entered into this dimension in different formats: documentaries, fixed camera, scripted performances or time-lapses, among others that you can browse in our video section.
The architecture firm MAD Architects, based in Beijing, China, has presented the design of its first project in South America, the mixed-use "Qondesa" tower in Quito, Ecuador, which will soon become the tallest building in the city.
The Pan American Biennial of Architecture of Quito (BAQ2022) ended on November 18th. Organized by the Pichincha Provincial College of Architects of Ecuador (CAE-P), it has been held since 1978 with the aim of promoting dialogue, exchange, and reflection on architecture and the contemporary city. During this edition, the intention was to address the theme "Inflections: Seeing again", with the aim of providing a space for discussion and debate on architecture around the moments of inflection in history.
On the closing day, the winning projects for both the National Award and the Pan American Award were announced from among the nearly 60 selected finalists. At the same time, the winners of the Social Habitat and Sustainability Award were announced from among 8 selected finalists, as well as the two works that jointly won the Biennial Grand Prize. See all the winners below.
Felipe Escudero, founder, and principal of Quito-based Estudio Felipe Escudero (EFE), has unveiled Crystal City, his latest metaverse design for LEDY, one of the discipline's leading developers, and Decent Amusements, the district manager. In addition to a high-rise observation deck, an ice-covered marketplace, and a packed snow gallery, this new metaverse destination will feature Decentraland's tallest multi-purpose tower, Crystal Tower.
Each of these metrics is explained in more detail at the foot of this article. This ranking list will be updated annually, taking into account new achievements of Ecuador architecture firms throughout the year.
The Jannina Cabal & Arquitectos studio was founded in 2003, after four years of work and various experiences as an architect in construction companies and architectural consulting studios. The members of our office are young architects with a lot of creativity and energy. Currently, the study has a work team of ten architects, specialized in different areas, as well as a group of consultants in support engineering. In large numbers today, very varied residential projects, urban and commercial projects are developed throughout the country.
Leppanen +Anker Arquitectura is an architecture office founded by Aaron Leppanen and Gabriela Anker in Quito. Leppanen+Anker Arquitectura has worked across multiple scales, programs and cultures. Leppanen+Anker Arquitectura has a strong interest in developing spatial experiences through a merger of contextual, cultural, sustainable and formal influences. Leppanen+Anker Arquitectura has a diverse background with experience in residential, commercial, cultural, educational and health care projects both in the public and private sectors.
I live in Ecuador, a territory with one of the greatest biodiversity in the world, so its geography, plants, climates and cultures are great stimuli for me, and with architecture this possibility of immersion and mixture with the environment appears: the letting oneself be transformed by the other, from that envelope where the limit is suspended. Therein lies the strength of architecture, the product of the immersive affectation that comes with rethinking our relationship with resources and with the world in which we live.
I think of architecture as an open process, and always changing based on new demands, which are updated by experience like that of the Cocoon: a transitory envelope, in which the transition of the worm is expressed, its state between, of suspended existence or even shared.
Founded by Ecuadorian architect Felipe Escudero in 2012, studio FE is an innovative firm focused on design, business tactics, and experiential innovation. We design urban strategies and architectural solutions by redefining challenging conditions as design opportunities. Collaborating with experts from all fields, we develop custom-made experiences for each one of our clients and end users.
URLO Studio is a family of nonconformist, pragmatic, visionary and innovative professionals who seek to set a turning point in the development of the city, always through coherent and rigorous ideas and designs that range from the architectural detail, to the broader urban scale.
Al Borde (2007), architecture firm based in Quito. Formed by David Barragn, Pascual Gangotena, Maraluisa Borja and Esteban Benavides. It inhabits the territory of questioning, where certainties about what architecture should or should not be are under constant construction. Its ideas are developed in the making, and with greater precision and detail on site.
It pursues an architecture whose aesthetics is conscious of the energy expended in construction, seemingly effortless, where the way materials joined together is clear and logical. An architecture opens to the active participation of users in the design and construction process, where everyone can see the problem solved, with no more pretensions to address the project demands.
Artist, innovator, designer and craftsman, Daniel Moreno Flores has been working in architecture for over a decade. Practicing the profession independently, the architect has formed a network in both Ecuador and Argentina. Daniel Moreno Flores is interested in the processes of experimental design, inquiry into structural forms, collective work for social cohesion through the appropriation of public space and the construction of infrastructure after the 2016 Ecuador earthquake.
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