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Travelogue, Bogotá The high-altitude metropolis with a flourishing creative economy
Great heights
Colombia’s capital Bogotá is the high-altitude metropolis where the creative economy is shaping a bright future
Words / Alia Akkam
Aholiday in Colombia typically translates to savouring sunny Medellín, the cool, innovative, café-fuelled second city that’s long been known as the former turf of notorious cocaine king Pablo Escobar. Cartagena, the Caribbean coastal retreat with a walled old town and picturesque cobbled alleys that have earned it Unesco World Heritage Site status, is another much-sought-after destination. Often overlooked, however, is Bogotá, the sprawling, at times overwhelming, capital. But it shouldn’t be missed. This high-altitude metropolis teems with delightful, rewarding surprises.
First, there is the arresting verdant landscape to take in. Sited within the Andes mountains, Bogotá’s lush green setting is reminiscent of a jungle. Traffic may be a maddening inevitability but the city’s stunning backdrop brightens the painfully slow crawl. Here, nature is powerful and never taken for granted.
Decades of conflict and violence have left deep scars on Bogotá, but its warm and optimistic denizens prefer, in this stable, post-civil-war era, to look forward. At the same time, they have found inspiration in the traditions that provided grounding comfort in those more woeful times, and there is a certain pride that permeates the city’s design scene in particular.
President Iván Duque Márquez has helped to propel this new momentum with his Orange Economy initiative. Since arriving in office in 2018, he has envisioned a notably different infrastructure for the country, one that places
Facing page Top to bottom: colourful houses climb the hillside in Bogotá; Juana la Loca, a restaurant designed by Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld Bottom image by Monica Barrenche
Previous page La Candelaria, the colonial-era downtown neightbourhood a premium on Colombia’s creative resources. Márquez is a lover of the arts, but he also sees this shift as a way of alleviating dependence on oil, what with the danger of ELN rebels attacking pipelines. And of course, this is good news for Bogotá’s many talented designers.
The downtown neighbourhood La Candelaria, with its street art murals juxtaposed against centuries-old plazas and intact colonial period buildings, is a fine place to delve into Bogotá’s rich heritage of craftsmanship. At the must-see Gold Museum, a stash of tens of thousands of pieces of sculpted metal illuminates bygone social and cultural rituals. Following up a visit with one to nearby restaurant Madre, where blissfully charred pizzas are served amid a jumble of exposed brickwork, amplifies the transitions between old and new.
A short walk away from here is Las Artesanías de Colombia, a sophisticated showcase of modern-day Colombian crafts that unites designers with a vast community of artisans across the country to turn out a range of home décor and fashion items. Baskets, vases and bags are made from materials such as werregue palm fibre and the Colombian black clay known as chamba. Las Artesanías de Colombia is a member of the Design Room, a virtual platform supported by the government that promotes contemporary Colombian design.
Verdi, another member of the Design Room, has its showroom in the industrial Las Ferias neighbourhood and similarly has a knack for rethinking cherished Colombian techniques. Known for its subtly gleaming hand-woven rugs, bags, art pieces and accessories that fuse copper threads with the likes of fique, plantain and agave fibres, Verdi is in fact built on legacy. Textile designer Carlos Vera Dieppa dreamed up this clever rug-weaving technique with the help of the people from Curití, a town in Santander. When he passed away, his children Tomás and Cristina launched the company as an ode to their father’s love of the loom.
All the hand-made bowls, silver earrings, and sculptural chairs for sale at Boho Expo, tucked inside a buzzy retail and restaurant complex in
Unsplash/Random Institute
Above Top to bottom: Design Hotel B.O.G., in the city’s Zona T district; textile showroom Verdi’s centrepiece is a tree of life, symbolising both the natural materials used in its products and the family ties behind the business Bottom image by Monica Barrenche
Facing page Objects on display in the Verdi showroom exhibit the company’s distinctive technique – hand-weaving together natural fibre and metal Image by Monica Barrenche
the Usaquen neighbourhood (skip the food here and fill up a few minutes’ walk away on an arepa brunch at Abasto, purveyors of a joyfully mighty hot sauce) also reveal a flair for the imaginative. But it isn’t just the designers who are having fun expressing their daring ideas.
In the bohemian-style Chapinero district, for instance, revel in famed Colombian coffee at an outpost of Café Cultor sited in a recycled shipping container. It’s just a quick stroll away from a proper meal at Café Bar Universal, a light-filled space bedecked with artwork. Helmed by chef Andrius Didziulis, it feels like an animated European brasserie, mixing large swathes of greenery with brick, mirror, tile and a cluster of globe light fixtures. Settle in to a banquette and enjoy the perpetually changing menu of avant-garde dishes like hummus and peppermint lamb shoulder or black pudding with cardamom and pineapple chutney.
Juana la Loca may not be relaxed enough for everyday dining, but this restaurant, hidden away in a mixed-use building close to the Parque 93 district, is gorgeous. Designed by Brazilian architect Isay Weinfeld, its wood and minimal lines make it a mid-century-moderninspired fantasy, serving such food as white fish with tangerine and fennel sauce and tres leches cake crowned with meringue. Reaching the dining room via the kitchen lends an element of excitement to the formal atmosphere, but hanging out at the marble-topped centrepiece bar underneath the louvred ceiling, a gin and tonic in hand, is the real draw.
Nearby is the Click Clack Hotel, which boasts an indoor vertical garden and is capped with a rooftop bar that fosters party vibes. B.O.G., the first Design Hotel in the city, in the Zona T area, is more upscale and hushed, but just as inviting with a rooftop pool and lobby-bar margaritas. Throughout the 55 guest rooms, Portuguese designer Nini Andrade Silva used a calming, shimmering palette of bronze, mirror and tinted glass to pay homage to Colombia’s enviable trove of emeralds and precious metals, and of course its gilded past. It is beautifully emblematic of Bogotá: ploughing into the future, never losing sight of what came before.
Address book Cultural and gastronomic gems from Bogotá
FOLIES
Smitten with both vintage pieces from the 1950s and the modernist lines championed by Adolf Loos, interior designer Jimena Londoño and industrial designer Eugenia Robledo banded together to found furniture and accessories brand Folies. Wander through the showroom and gawk at pieces such as the Cubo sofa, plumped up with cushions, the Scandinavian-style Olivia air chair or the Antonio bar-cart, which calls to mind mid-century dinner parties.
folies.co
V I L L A N O S E N BERMUDAS
Run by young chefs Sergio Meza and Nicolás López Villanos, this is the place to try inventive dishes such as carrot with marrow and citrus confit, and chickpea ice cream with white chocolate and blood orange.
villanosenbermudas.com
MESA FRANCA
Plants, mirrors, and neon and mosaic accents instill Mesa Franca with a desirably chill ambiance. But the food at this Chapinero restaurant, including dishes like caramelised tuna, spaghetti with trout bottarga, and steak tartare with chimichurri, chilli and crispy rice, is modern Colombian cooking at its best.
restaurantemesafranca.com INSTITUTO DE VISIÓN
Open in 2014, this gallery has fast become one of the city’s most renowned for contemporary art, featuring thought-provoking work from artists such as Pia Camil and Carolina Caycedo. Recent shows explored water as a metaphysical entity and the relationship between minerals and Colombia’s history.
institutodevision.com S T. D O M
This multi-level concept store is enchantingly located within an old colonial house, with touches such as brick arches softening the gallerylike white setting. All of the clothing, shoes, bags, and jewellery are from Colombian designers: look out for names such as Ballen Pellettiere, Claudia Trejos and Adriana Castro.
stdom.co
Sofia Toscano
Top to bottom: a show at the Instituto de Visión, of the city’s best-known spots for contemporary art; the airy Café Bar Universal with its European brasseriestyle decor and a changing menu
