Medellín and Antioquia's Historical and Cultural Center Part 2 Project 2007 Melina Escobar DuqueAlexandre Langlois Pontifical Bolivarian University | Colombia In a city undergoing a deep process of transformation, which had built itself tearing down the old and expanding indiscriminately in the name of progress, an interest to vindicate memory, culture and public space is arising parallel to that of recovering downtown areas immersed in serious social and spatial problems. The project results from a rich and complex analysis and urban proposal developed for one of these areas, generating a special public space that “wraps” the building hosting the historical archives and cultural facilities whilst integrating and allowing people to appreciate some of the most important remaining historical buildings downtown. The studio seeks that urban anthropology and ecology provide design working tools and a place where projection methodologies generate. This way, architecture emerges as crafter of new social and environmental urban ecosystems. We are interested in cultural dynamics present in urban space and in how it disposes itself according to the individual’s life and actions. The importance of Melina’s project stands in the pertinence of the program and in the direct relationship between interior and public space the building proposes, offering a new way of experiencing the spatiality of an infrastructure where urban life becomes the project’s formal premise. Tutor(s)