The Center in Science & Biodiversity of Risaralda, CiBi, is a mixed use building located in the municipality of Dosquebradas, in the department of Risaralda, Colombia. The region is internationally known by the richness of its Fauna and Flora, as it is the second in the world with more different ecosystems. Unfortunately, Dosquebradas is also known as one of the cities in Colombia with the lowest public area per citizen.
Thus, the Center was projected with the double objective of solving the need of public space for the city and answering to the decision of conceiving a Center of Science & BIodiversity that can act as a foreign tourist attraction remarking the main potentials of Risaralda. The Center has a gross area of 11,700square meters with a 6,700 square meters public space on its roof.
The programme of the Center is concentrated at the semibasement level, which has the great advantage of a complete light control, letting the roof, that is accesible from the adjacent streets for a public space conceived as a an atlas of Risaralda’s natural biodiversity. The Center, apart from the expositive area, also has some polyvalent rooms, an auditórium, a Domo-cinema, laboratories, multipurpose areas, a restaurant, a cafeteria, retail areas, a kindergarten and a gift shop that will ensure the Center’s economical sustainability.
The whole building is finished in raw Royal Veta Stone, a local variety of limestone, that together with the landscape design contributes to generate the image of a monumental building invaded by wild nature, and at the same time generates a stately style that is the opposite of the raw interior finished in concrete.
