Finalists

IQON Residences
Quito, Ecuador

Since the relocation of the international airport to an outlying district a good ten years ago, Quito, which was originally charac­terized by low-rise and sprawling buildings, has been growing upwards. With the brutalist-looking IQON Residences, the sky­line of the burgeoning Ecuadorian capital gains a residential and office high-rise full of character set against the spectacular back­drop of the surrounding Andes. Situated on the edge of La Carolina park, a city forest with expansive parklands in Quito’s business district, the city’s tallest high-rise offers unobstructed views of the park and the Pichincha volcano.

The building’s form follows the geometric con­tours of the site, which is shaped like a mirror-invert­ed “L.” At the corner, the façade fans out on both sides, creating a curve from which the individual stacked apartments with their terraces protrude like pixels. Each terrace is planted with greenery and a tree, whose planter extends into the apartment be­low as a funnel-shaped sculpture. Once the native trees and plants outgrow their planters, they can be relocated to green spaces throughout the city and replaced with new greenery cultivated on site. Ideal­ly, IQON Residences will thus become not only a ver­tical extension of La Carolina park but also part of a city-wide green cycle.

Quito’s temperate, perpetually spring-like cli­mate – the city is located around 20 kilometers south of the equator – makes it possible to operate the high-rise building without insulation, air condition­ing or heating systems. The raw exposed concrete characterizes the building’s lively look, while serving as a structural framework. In addition, the concrete provides thermal regulation by retaining heat at night and cooling during the day. Each floor is made up of apartments extending across the entire depth of the building, thus featuring terraces on both the north and south façades – naturally facilitating cross-ventilation. The 215 residential units are com­posed of three contemporary apartment types of varying sizes, complemented by communal leisure facilities such as a spa and squash court. The ground floor, which includes a public plaza, retail spaces, and artworks, connects the park to the rest of the neighborhood via a new pathway. Inside, marble, green shades, and blackened steel set subtle ac­cents in combination with the dominant exposed concrete. 

IQON Residences
Quito, Ecuador
Architecture
BIG – Bjarke Ingels Group, Copenhagen, Denmark / New York, USA
Client
Uribe Schwarzkopf
Function
Residential
Height
130 m
Completion
December 2022
Best High-Rises 2024/25