Architecture that adapts to people: Jacob van Rijs and The Hills towers, in Guayaquil

Next November the construction of the five apartment towers called The Hills, in Puerto Santa Ana, Guayaquil, designed by the Dutch architecture and design firm MVRDV.

the co-founder Jacob van Rijs he was in the city this month and during his stay he gave a lecture to the educational community of the Catholic University of Santiago de Guayaquil about this project, but he also shared the trajectory of MVRDV and showed his housing projects, which is one of his favorite topics .

Van Rijs is one of the main architects of the interdisciplinary studio MVRDVbased in Rotterdam and founded by himself, Winy Maas and Nathalie de Vries in 1993. His work is geared towards combining innovative concepts with humanistic and citizen-friendly approaches.

In the last 25 years he has led projects ranging from transformations to cultural and civic buildings, residential complexes, social housing and interior design.

Among Van Rijs’ most renowned projects are the Ragnarok Danish Rock Museum, in the city of Roskilde, where the Musicon festival takes place; the building at the foot of the Frosilo sea, in Denmark; the Matsudai Cultural Center, in Japan; the Mirador building, made up of nine blocks or neighborhoods, in Madridand the Kwantes House, in Schiedam, the Netherlands.

Van Rijs has also worked on various projects in Germany, such as the Werk 12 building in Munich, the innovation port in Hamburg and the KoolKiel mixed-use complex, in the German city of Kiel. In India he has overseen several large scale housing projects: Future Towers, Oranje Castle. And he has experimented with ceramic facades on buildings like the Gyre shopping center in Tokyo and the mall seven-story M-Cube in Beijing.

In addition, he is Professor of Architectural Design at the Technical University of Berlin. “For us at MVRDV, architecture is about people. A good design is one that allows people to feel content, comfortable, achieve their goals, and live well in community. But good design must also be courageous,” he explains, and going beyond what the public expects, showing them how doing things in unexpected ways can make life better.

Building in the midst of the dynamism of Guayaquil

This has been the first visit of Van Rijs to Guayaquil, since the work began remotely. In this initial tour, observe, in the landscape of Guayaquil, the natural elevations right in the center of the city stand out, such as the Santa Ana hill, and also the constructions of different types on the banks of the Guayas river, ranging from small houses to large buildings, some traditional in style and others modern.

“Very beautiful structures could be designed, but sometimes they can seem strange, alienated, totally different from what is around them”. The objective of MVRDV is not to break the fluidity of the city, but to combine the ordinary and the modern so that there is harmony between its structures and that nothing feels abrupt or alien.

The Hills towers incorporate the concept of healthy urbanism. “It is not a single tower, it is an urbanization, a neighborhood, a neighborhood.” In the apartment area there will be privacy and security, but the ground floor will be open to the public, with different shops and premises, an extension of the Malecón, of The Point building. “We hope to achieve our vision,” says the architect, adding that the exterior facades will be straight and in light colors, to visually integrate with the other buildings in the area, but on the other side they will be curved and have various colors to reflect the profile of the hills.

The model apartment is already visible and there is a sales center in Puerto Santa Ana, which includes up to the fourth tower. The inauguration, explains Van Rijs, will be in two parts; first four towers, which comprise 75% of the construction (by the end of 2025), and then the fifth, which will be the largest (143 m high).

According to the real estate company Uribe Schwarzkopf, the towers will be distinguished by the use of natural and diversified vegetation on each floor, an exercise in biodiversity. All electricity consumption in the communal areas of The Hills will be photovoltaic, and that would imply significant energy savings for residents, with a reduction of almost 60% in the cost of electricity, compared to the average.

Another important element will be the balconies that MVRDV integrated into the design, taking into account the climate of Guayaquil, since the balconies provide shade and protect the glass facades from overheating. The arrangement of the towers, in the shape of a valley, is designed to favor the natural flow of air.

Guayaquil, as Van Rijs sees it, is a city of contrasts, colorful in certain areas and neutral in others. “It is a city with a lot of vivacity, it is very dynamic”; with a mix between very organized sectors and other very organic ones, which at first glance may even seem chaotic, but which one later learns to appreciate. It’s not the most beautiful city he’s ever visited, he concedes, but what makes it beautiful is the sense of movement the people give him.

Instead, there are cities whose first impression is that they have a classical beauty and have beautiful buildings, but they lack that sparkle and dynamism. Y there are cities that overflow with energy, but that does not mean that they necessarily have to resemble each other; He gives as an example certain cities in Asia where wildlife coexists, for cultural reasons. And there is also the Japanese capital, Tokyo, “a very lively city, but at the same time quite orderly and safe. Each one is different.” (YO)