Architecture firm Pico Colectivo (Collective Peak) has transformed an existing vandalised building in Guácara, Venezuela, to create a “cultural production zone”. The project addresses the need for collective community spaces as a result of huge gaps and precarious structures commonly found in the city centre. By repurposing shipping containers, the design creates a variety of functions including: urban garden, cafeteria, image and audiovisual laboratory, recording studio and music room, gallery, multipurpose workshop, skate plaza, sports court and a stage for presentations.

The scheme by the architects uses an existing building that was previously left to ruin after street protests. The “cultural production zone” initiative transforms the vandalised space with a series of initiatives driven by groups of artists and local communities. The project gained support from a state financing program that provides technical equipment and cultural tools.

The design uses shipping containers to accommodate the spaces and stacks them to create multiple structures into a single, more complex system. By using a substructure supported by the previous foundations, the separate containers are assembled on top of one another to build a whole.

Colour and greenery have been used throughout to make an inviting and welcoming environment for the community. The intervention by Pico Colectivo brings together cultural units to create a centre of urban creation and experimental economies, based on the transformation of an existing vandalised construction.

Images © Pico Colectivo