alsar-atelier
Bogotá, Colombia
Alejandro Saldarriaga Rubio is a Colombian designer born in Bogotá in 1995. He holds a master’s degree in architecture from the Harvard Graduate School of Design and has lived and worked in Denmark, Switzerland, and the United States. In 2020, he founded alsar-atelier, a studio born during the pandemic, focusing on adaptable, affordable, and resilient architecture. Since its founding, the practice has received wide recognition both locally and internationally. He has presented alsar-atelier’s work at Harvard GSD and Columbia GSAPP. In 2023, alsar-atelier was selected in Archdaily’s Best New Practices and published in Domus. In 2024, the studio received an Outstanding Project mention in the Mies Crown Hall Americas Prize EMERGE Cycle 5.
2025 Biennial Project
Project Overview
The embellished, the transient, and the critical
This full-scale architectural installation transforms ordinary plastic pallets into an ornamental vertical wall. Inspired by post-pandemic design and magical realism, it explores how everyday materials can take on new meaning through temporary, reversible construction. Built from off-the-shelf components and dry joints, the structure can be fully disassembled and reused, embracing sustainability and material circularity. The installation reflects on how the pandemic reshaped public space, encouraging imaginative, adaptable designs. Like magical realism, it blends the real with the fantastical—mass with void, structure with ornament. This project is both a spatial experiment and a critique of architectural permanence, asking how temporary design can respond creatively to crisis and change.
Venue
View more840 N. Michigan Avenue
Address
840 N. Michigan Ave
Description
The Biennial expands its footprint downtown with the opening of its fifth site at 840 N. Michigan Avenue, transforming more than 65,000 square feet of space on the Magnificent Mile into a dynamic hub for art, design, and dialogue.
