BIG has released design for a new residential tower in Ecuador, the 33-storey tower will be BIG's first project to be built in South America. 

Called IQON, the 35,000-square-metre scheme is currently under construction in the city of Quito. 

Set to be Quito's tallest building, the tower is located at the edge between city and park, offering striking views of the surroundings and the volcanoes and nature beyond. 

The tower is made upon "rotating concrete boxes" that are stacked in 33 floors. Each box is rotated to provide the best possible views and create outdoor terraces for each apartment. At the base of the building, a cascading series of stepping terraces will create an open public plaza activated by retail spaces that will allow people to rest in the shade or access the building lobbies. 

The architects designed stepping terraces with an integrated lap pool at the roof level, to offer residents a place to relax overlooking the city. Each floor and units will own terraces on both the north and south facades - which not only allows for views across the entire city, but also offers the opportunity for cross ventilation and a sense of openness. 

"We are letting la carolina park climb up and into the building by planting native trees and plants on the terraces: the closer to the park, the taller the trees,’ explains the design team," said BIG in a project description. 

"A hollow wall underneath each balcony has enough space to hold the roots of each tree. the planters become a concrete sculpture inside the apartments, which is the root zone of the tree for the apartment above."

"The entire façade of the project becomes a vertical display of the biodiversity of Quito. The building acts like an urban tree farm: once the vegetation planted on the terraces of the building outgrows their planters (after approximately 5 years), they can be replanted in parks all over the city," the studio added.

Described as "a part of green cycle" in the city, BIG's new tower aims to compress the unique experience of Quito into a single building to create a vertical community: La Carolina Park climbing all the way up to the penthouse.

Project facts

Name: IQON
Program: housing
Status: under construction
Size: 35,000 sqm / 376,737 sqf
Type: commission
Client: uribe & schwarzkopf
Collaborators: uribe & schwarzkopf, rene lagos, geo estudios, fernando romo, reg hough, cpp wind tunnel
Location: avenida de los shyris, quito, ecuador

Project team
Partners-in-charge: bjarke ingels, thomas christoffersen
Project leader: maria sole bravo
Project designer: lorenz krisai
Project architect: stephanie choi
Team: andrea di pompeo, benjamin novacinski, chengjie li, claire djang, deborah campbell, douglass alligood, francesca portesine, jan leenknegt, jason wu, josiah poland, juan david ramirez, lucia sanchez ramirez, ma ning, magdalena narkiewicz, margaret tyrpa, megan ng, peter sepassi, rune hansen, rune wriedt, sebastian grogaard, sijia zhou, stephanie mauer, stephen kwok, terrence chew, tracy sodder.

All images courtesy of BIG.

> via BIG