Simón Vélez

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The son and grandson of architects, Simón Vélez was born in Manizales, Colombia, in 1949. Vélez began his career forty years ago and has emerged as one of the world’s leading architects and the most eminent proponent of bamboo as an essential building component.

Vélez has created joinery systems that utilize bamboo as a permanent structural element in both residential and commercial structures. For four consecutive years he has been invited by the Vitra Design Museum and the George Pompidou Center to conduct workshops in France in which structures of bamboo-guadua were built as an instructive exercise.

For Expo Hanover 2000, he designed and constructed a 2000-square-meter bamboo pavilion for ZERI (Zero Emissions Research Initiative). The structure utilized bamboo, recycled cement, copper, and a mixture of terracotta, cement and bamboo fiber panels. He recently participated in designing Crosswaters Ecolodge, the first ecotourism destination in China in the forests of Nankun Shan Mountain Reserve, in the Guangdong Province. It the largest project in the world to the use bamboo in a commercial project, and the first project of this scale in Asia to use bamboo as a structural element in a dwelling. The project received the 2006 American Society of Landscape Architects 2006 Analysis and Planning Award of Honor.

To date, Vélez has designed bamboo buildings in Germany, France, the United States, Brazil, Mexico, China, Jamaica, Colombia, Panama, Ecuador, and India.

His most current project is the Zócalo Nomadic Museum in Mexico City, which houses Gregory Colbert's "Ashes and Snow."