SIMÓN VÉLEZ’S PAVILION
Simón Vélez
SSimón Vélez, famous Columbian architect specialized in natural architecture, associated with Stefana Simic, imagined and designed this exceptional structure specially for CONTEMPLATION: a unique 1,000 square meters Pavilion made of bamboos. Built with a central room for the exhibition and an outdoor walkway for the contemplative movement, the CONTEMPLATION Pavilion mixes and balances materials with natural elements.
This monumental installation has been created as a “place of serenity”, propitious to discovery and contemplation ; a corridor, a gateway between Art and Matthieu Ricard’s commitments. Through CONTEMPLATION, photography and architecture enter in communion: the bamboo structure and natural materials used by Simón Vélez echo back the values of the photographer and the lights and shapes of the Pavilion underlines and sublimates the light-dark of the photographs.
This Pavilion is the first installation made in prefabrication by this duo of architects. It has created new architectural possibilities for them: it can be entirely disassembled, transported and reassembled wherever CONTEMPLATION will be settled.
“Guadua is extraordinary. It is more resistant than steel, grows much faster than any tree, and can generate more biomass than any other cultivation of any other species. There is nothing that compares to its capacity for capturing CO2 from the atmosphere and its impressive ability to produce oxygen.”
— Simón Vélez et Stefana Simic —
THE NATURE AT THE HEART OF THE PROJECT
The Pavilion is inspired by the malocas from South America: they are large constructions of wooden pillars with a unique central room, which still exist in the wild jungle slopes of the Orinoco River and Amazon River. The maloca represents the sacred link between the environment and its inhabitants: through the inspiration of this ancestral concept, Simón Vélez places nature and its spirituality at the heart of its construction.
THE GUADUA BAMBOO
The Pavilion is made with Guadua bamboo, from Colombia. It is the most abundant renewable forest resource in Colombia and it has been proven over the years to be stronger than steel.
1,000 m2 of bamboo structure,
with 400 m2 of exhibition area
and 600 m2 of outside corridor
70 m long, 10 m high
1800 bamboos from 3 to 10 long – equal 7 km
3000 m2 of ‘esterilla’ for the walls and the roof
1 month of construction
Simón Vélez
Born 1949, Manizales, Colombia.
Lives and works Bogota, Colombia.
Simón Vélez is a Colombian architect, worldwide famous for his variations on complex bamboo structures and his architecture based on the use of indigenous, natural, and little processed materials. He places the respect for the work and the workers at the heart of his masterpieces, by promoting the exchange of knowledge and skills. His work has been especially noticed during the 2016 Venice Biennale.