Casa de la memoria de Pueblobello [Pueblobello’s house of memory]

Pueblo Bello is a small village in the Colombian region of Uraba, inhabited by about 2000 people, which from 1990
and for nearly twenty years suffered the worst effects of paramilitary and guerrilla violence. Specially gruesome was the disappearance of “the 43”, the largest forced disappearance

of the history of Colombia and the reason why the nation was sanctioned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights because of the army’s ties to the paramilitary forces who committed it.

One of the measures of collective reparations, was the community defined need for a building that would serve to regain and strengthen community life while honoring the memory of the 500 victims of the violence.

A diagonal wall creates the entrance to the building, an element that attacks the geometry of the rest of the construction,
the wall creates two openings, one from the outside of the building towards the memorial space and a second one from the memorial space towards the community space, in between, there’s is a mandatory view: Pueblo Bello’s tree, a massive Ceiba tree that for many years remained the only visible landmark in the whole village.

This building materialized in 2014 harboring an architectural program designed directly by the community in accordance with their wishes and needs