The Curtains

Abstract

Probing into the parameters of a ‘wall’, this project seeks to empower the boundary wall in reactivating street life along the private-public street boundary, where front-yards were originally planned but now missing. In Teusaquillo of Bogota, people have regretfully took ‘walls’ as mere devices to define territories. Yet, there are latent potentials embedded in these boundary walls that could support more vibrant streetscape. Unlocked by investigating a ‘wall’ through urban ecology and etymology, findings are translated into an architectural intervention that evokes search for meaningfulness and integration between the school boundary walls and the neighbourhood. As an incremental result from a parallel process of research and design, a new series of ‘urban curtains’ challenges the monotonous definition of school boundary walls which are ubiquitous in Teusaquillo. Various actors would explore their own interpretation of this seam between school and street, by operating each layer of curtain. Built to activate urban life, the ‘urban curtain’ is also advocating a new type of ‘co-operative security’ that initiates public surveillance, in opposition to a passive security device imposed by the school authority. Within this seam, is an inconspicuous yet sensitive testing ground that embodies how the author, as an architect, could craft capacity for an equivocal built environment.