With BIG’s first building IQON under construction in Ecuador, BIG and Uribe & Schwarzkopf once again join forces to bring a vertical neighborhood to Quito, the greenest capital in South America.

Architect : Bjarke Ingels Group

Client : Uribe & Schwarzkopf

Location : Av. de la Rebuplica y Av. Eloy Alfaro - Quito, Ecuador

Year : 2019

Collaborators : Uribe & Schwarzkopf (Architect of Record), Fernando Romo (Local Structural Engineer), JB&B (MEP Consultant), Rene Lagos (Structural Engineers), Geo Estudios (Civil and Geo-tech Engineer)

Partners-in-Charge : Bjarke Ingels, Thomas Christoffersen

Project Designer : Lorenz Krisai

Project Architects : Tran Le, Amir Mikhaeil

Team : Ace Nguyen, Alvaro Velosa, Anton Bashkaev, Beat Schenk, Benjamin Novacinski, Deborah Campbell, Douglass Alligood, Emily Chen, Emmett Walker, Florencia Kratsman, Francesca Portesine, Jan Leenknegt, Josiah Poland, Lucia Sanchez Ramirez, Magdalena Narkiewicz, Margaret Tyrpa, Maria Sole Bravo, Megan Van Artsdalen, Oliver Thomas, Stephanie Choi, Stephanie Hui, Terrence Chew, Tracy Sodder, Veronica Acosta, Won Ryu, Ziad Shehab

Images : Bjarke Ingels Group

From the architect: The 24-story mixed-use tower is located on the southern tip of La Carolina Park in the center of the city. The shape of the site is a quarter of a circle and occupies the west corner intersection of Avenida de la Republica and Avenida Eloy Alfaro, across the street from the new Quito subway. The rounded corners of the building allow for panoramic views of the city while minimizing impact from neighboring buildings to daylight exposure.

At its base, a pedestrian through-block connection forms a new gateway to the park and the recently completed subway station. Throughout its height, soft openings are carved into the building mass to create eight distinct blocks. These ‘buildings within a building’ are connected by large, communal green terraces at different elevations.

EPIQ reflects the colors and patterns of Ecuador, taking inspiration from the earth tones and herringbone pattern of tiles seen throughout the streets of Quito’s Old City, which is a UNESCO world heritage site. While the façade pattern is based on the scale of the individual apartments, the red and pink hues give each volume its own identity. Together, these residential blocks form a vertical neighborhood that exemplifies a new approach to integrating outdoor space into a high-density residential building aimed at fostering a community.

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