Project Jerusalen: Rural Housing Design Competition
Project Jerusalen was a 2021 concept competition for a private rural residential development in La Calera, near Bogotá, Colombia. It invited an architectural and landscape proposal for future residents with high purchasing power. Its emphasis was on the relationship between homes, shared spaces and the surrounding landscape.
A historical brief with a numerical discrepancy
The archived written brief specifies 22 homes, while the original Hacienda Jerusalén poster says 24. We could not resolve this discrepancy from the available material. The numbers are therefore identified as conflicting source statements, rather than presented as a confirmed development capacity.
The poster records a submission deadline of 14 April 2021. It remains on this archive page as historical material; the competition is not open for new entries. This article does not establish whether the proposal was subsequently built.
Architecture, climate and landscape
The brief sought a coherent concept combining residential architecture, site planning and landscape design. Participants were asked to respond to environmental conditions through bioclimatic strategies and to explain how those decisions supported comfort. The intended result was a design direction for later development by the organiser’s architectural team.
The editorial question is how the concept translates into orientation, the arrangement of volumes, materials and outdoor spaces. For comparison within the archive, the Puigpunyent passive house connects comfort to design decisions; its solutions should be understood in their own site and climate context.
What the submission needed to explain
Participants could choose drawings, sketches, model photographs, perspectives or renderings to communicate their proposal. The written explanation of its concept and aims was limited to one page. The submission also called for a basic bioclimatic study supporting design decisions.
The material needed to show the overall programme and zoning; relationships between homes, communal areas and landscape; the architectural character and exterior materials of the houses; and the development’s overall massing in its setting. This was a concept-stage exercise, not a request for a complete construction package.
Useful comparisons
Our article on a two-volume house shaped by topography offers another way to examine the relationship between a building and its terrain. The Toronto Affordable Housing Challenge provides a contrasting brief focused on affordability and flexible households. Its priorities should not be conflated with this development’s higher-income target market.
