When Smooth Meets Rough

The project addresses Colombia’s dark, disputed emerald trade by proposing a new private trading centre and public gem gallery to be set within Bogota’s cultural centre.

The building’s design confronts the hidden with the public sphere, appropriating an existing subterranean car-park, in order to create a secure brokerage facility whilst also providing a welcoming public plaza. On arrival at the site, visitors are lured inward toward the canopy covered entrance that appears to sweep up from the earth below. A bulging landscape of planters and seating choreographs the approach, causing one to meander around skylights that appear to erupt from the ground like coarsely cut crystals.

The building hopes to mark a new chapter in trade, demystifying the Colombian emerald, and providing a worthy home for the country’s most priceless jewels.