Textructure
Category
Design
Year
2022-1
Software and Tools
Rhinoceros 3D, Laser Cutter.
Exploring the contrasts
This lighting piece explores the contrast between the organic structures found in the products of the Paloquemao Market and the characteristic architecture of the site. The work extracts patterns from the texture of beef tripe using a concrete tracing technique through alginate molds. This material, commonly associated with construction and inherently inert, is transformed here into a medium that highlights the organic and vital qualities inhabiting the space. In the market, schematic and regular forms coexist with somatic and organic ones; the piece materializes this tension, revealing the continuity between structure and life.
The Paloquemao Market (1967, Bogotá), designed by architects Dicken Castro and Jacques Mosseri, is characterized by its modular roof of prefabricated triangular concrete elements, a double-height folded system that allows indirect light to enter as it separates from the walls.
This geometric and repetitive structure contrasts with the diversity of organic textures present in the market’s products. Among these, beef tripe—the muscular lining of the cow’s stomach—stands out for its rough, folded surface, originally designed to increase nutrient absorption. This texture was captured using alginate molds and later incorporated into acrylic molds developed from the formal “explosion” of a digital model inspired by the architectural structure of the site. The project establishes a material dialogue between the plaza’s structural geometry and the market’s organic qualities, translating architecture and food into a unified formal exploration.
