Opportunities For Architecture Urbanism and Design in Colombia

Fact-finding mission to Colombia
on opportunities for architecture,

urbanism and design
Commissioned by the ministry of Foreign Affairs
FACT-FINDING MISSION TO COLOMBIA ON
OPPORTUNITIES FOR ARCHITECTURE,
URBANISM AND DESIGN
Commissioned by: Netherlands Enterprise Agency Transition Facility Colombia
Authors:
URBANOS sustainable urbanism

Camila Pinzon Cortes and Pepijn Verpaalen
www.urbanos.nl
t: +31204218331
m: office@urbanos.nl
SimonJJ / SEVEN Innovation

Simon Jimenez Jaramillo
www.simonjj.com / www.seveninnovation.com
t: +310614380771
m: simon@seveninnovation.com
Fact-finding mission on opportunities for Dutch architecture, urbanism and design in Colombia
CONTENTS
Abbreviations and definitions.................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Management summary ................................................................................................................................................................................................... 5
Resumen ejecutivo ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7
Chapter 1. Introduction, research questions and approach............................................................................................11
1.1. Introduction and research question ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

1.2 Approach and structure of the report ................................................................................................................................................... 11
Chapter 2. Dutch offer in the sectors of urbanism, architecture and design ............................................................13
2.1 Creative industries in the Netherlands................................................................................................................................................. 13
2.2 Organization of the sector ........................................................................................................................................................................... 14
2.3 Dutch offer in the specific sectors .......................................................................................................................................................... 15
2.4 Trends........................................................................................................................................................................................................................ 16
2.5 The Dutch sector in an international perspective ......................................................................................................................... 17
Chapter 3. Introduction to Colombia ...................................................................................................................................18
3.1 Country, departments, metropolitan regions and municipalities ........................................................................................ 18
3.2 Economy and urbanization.......................................................................................................................................................................... 18
3.3 Where to start? .................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19
3.4 Stakeholders Creative Industries.............................................................................................................................................................. 21
3.5 Public assignments ............................................................................................................................................................................................ 21
3.6 Events and competitions ............................................................................................................................................................................... 22
3.7 Business, knowledge exchange and collaboration ......................................................................................................................... 23
Chapter 4. Design in Colombia ..............................................................................................................................................24
4.1 Design in Colombia.......................................................................................................................................................................................... 24
4.2 Industrial Design ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 25
4.2.1 Stakeholders for the Industrial Design Sector........................................................................................................................ 26
4.3 Graphic Design.................................................................................................................................................................................................... 26
4.3.1 Stakeholders for the Graphic Design Sector............................................................................................................................ 27
4.4 Potential clients Design ................................................................................................................................................................................. 27
4.5 Leads for business and knowledge exchange .................................................................................................................................... 28
Chapter 5. Architecture in Colombia ....................................................................................................................................30
5.1 Architecture .......................................................................................................................................................................................................... 30
5.2 Stakeholders for the Architecture sector ............................................................................................................................................ 32
5.3 Potential clients architecture ..................................................................................................................................................................... 32
5.4 Leads for Business and knowledge exhange ...................................................................................................................................... 33
Chapter 6. Urbanism in Colombia .........................................................................................................................................35
6.1 Urbanism: urban planning and design .................................................................................................................................................. 35
6.2 Stakeholders for the Urbanism sector................................................................................................................................................... 37
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6.3 Potential clients Urbanism........................................................................................................................................................................... 39

6.4 Leads for Business and knowledge exchange.................................................................................................................................... 39
Chapter 7. Challenges and strategy........................................................................................................................................42
7.1 Challenges .............................................................................................................................................................................................................. 42
7.2 Strategy .................................................................................................................................................................................................................... 45
Appendices ....................................................................................................................................................................................47
Appendix1. Interviews in the Netherlands and Colombia............................................................................................................... 47
Appendix 2: Relevant Stakeholders ................................................................................................................................................................ 59
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ABBREVIATIONS AND DEFINITIONS
ACFA Asociación Colombiana de Facultades de Arquitectura

ADGORA Asociación Colombiana de la Industria Publicitaria
ACIUR Asociación Colombiana de Investigadores Urbano Regionales.
ADGCO Asociación de Diseñadores Gráficos de Colombia
ANDIGRAF Asociación Colombiana de la Industria de le Comunicación Gráfica
BIM Building Information Modeling
BNA Branchevereniging van architectenbureaus
BNO Beroepsorganisatie Nederlandse Ontwerpers
BoP Base of the Pyramid
BRT Bus Rapid Transit
CAF Development Bank of Latin America
ERU Empresa de Renovación Urbana (Bogotá)
EMRU Empresa Municipal de Renovación Urbana (Cali)
EDUBAR Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano de Barranquilla
EDU Empresa de Desarrollo Urbano (Medellin)
Cajas de
Compensación: non-profit private organizations responsible for the administration of the social
benefits in Colombia. Employers (public and private) companies pay to these organizations
social security per employee and these companies provide health, education, recreation
services to the employees.
CAMACOL Cámara Colombiana de la Construcción
CCB Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá
CONPES Consejo Nacional de Política Económica y Social. The CONPES documents are the technical
and coordination support to the generation of public policies
CPNAA Consejo Profesional Nacional de Arquitectura y sus Profesiones Auxiliares
DANE Departemento Administrativo Nacional de Estadísitca
Decreto Ordinance
DNP Departamento Nacional de Planeación
IABD Inter American Development Bank
IDE Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering at the University of Technology Delft
JICA Japan International Cooperation Agency
GTZ Gesellschaft für Technische Zusammenarbeit
Ley law
MVO maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen
NAMA Nationally Appropriate Mitigation Actions
POP Point of Purchase
POT Plan de Ordenamiento Territorial
PPP Public private partnership (in Spanish is APP Asociación Público Privada)
RAD Red Académica de Diseño
TOD Transit Oriented Developments
USAID United States Agency for International Development
VNG Association of Netherlands Municipalities
MANAGEMENT SUMMARY
This report presents the results and general description of a Fact-finding Mission intended to find
opportunities and develop a strategy to stimulate business, knowledge exchange or collaborations in the fields
of Architecture, Urbanism, Industrial and Graphic design between Colombia and the Netherlands. The project
was commissioned by The Netherlands Enterprise Agency Transition Facility Colombia (RVO), and it is based
on desk research and expert interviews with stakeholders in both countries.
Colombia and the Netherlands

• Colombia was part of the countries within the transition category. Until half way 2015 a transition is made
from development cooperation towards economical collaboration between both countries. Colombia is
internationally considered to have great potential because of its relatively good investment climate, sound
economic policies, well-developed financial sector, rapidly growing middle class, relatively young
population, growth of cities and stable political situation.
• Colombia has the 39th largest economy in the world, and it is divided in 32 departments with a population
of about 48,6 million inhabitants. For this mission, and because of the topic on creative industries, the focus
was put on four main cities: Bogota, Medellin, Cali and Barranquilla.
Creative industries in the Netherlands

• The Netherlands focuses on 9 "top sectors" to keep the Dutch economy vital and in which
internationalization is a priority. One of these sectors is ‘the Creative Industries’ of which design,
architecture and urbanism are disciplines.
• Key characteristics of Dutch design, in general: pragmatic, open-minded, conceptual, out of the box and
adhering to the ‘less-is-more’ principle. Dutch design also fuses innovation, creativity and business. The
Dutch creative sector has a good reputation and image in Colombia.
• Dutch architects are strong in complex multi-use buildings and public buildings. Dutch urbanism is well
known for its approach in which stakeholders actively work together on integrated solutions.
• Dutch designers are strong in processes, integrated solutions and design management. Some fields are
particularly well-known in the Dutch design field: Service design, packaging design, signage design, user
experience research (UX), Interaction design, and sustainability.
Creative industries in Colombia

• The Creative Industries in Colombia are a maturing sector. Proper government policy for the creative
industries is in general missing. However, the academic offer is comparable to that of European and
American universities, which creates a good climate for knowledge exchange.
• The general public still believes design is a ‘luxury good’ and not a necessity. This leads to a poor
understanding of what the role of design as a business accelerator might be. Besides, there is not much
innovation happening in the fields of design, urbanism and architecture.
• Design publications, contests and events are starting to appear in Colombia and these seem to have more
importance for the industry, which could have created opportunities for young offices to appear. This
seems to have led to several international organizations to start businesses and collaborations with
Colombian partners.
Demand and market outlook

• Most work in Design in Colombia is done for private organizations that do not house designers, or that
wish to diversify their portfolio and do not have the specific knowledge needed for their particular cases.
• Private developers, Cajas de Compensación and public parties are the main contractors for architecture and
urbanism. Regulation for public contracting in Colombia is very strict due to prevention from corruption
and joining tenders asks for a good preparation because of the short response period and administrative
burden.
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• Summary of leads that were identified during the mission for all sectors:
o Sustainable design for housing and sustainable solutions for urban planning. Half way 2016 a
new law will be effective to make housing more sustainable. Also at neighbourhood scale
Colombia seeks solutions for sustainability.
o The national government has education as one of its main priorities. In the coming years
many schools will be built or renovated.
o Tourism is growing and Colombia is in need for a better-equipped tourism and air travelling
infrastructure. Building of hotels and resorts is booming, thanks to fiscal benefits offered by
the government, and airports will be upgraded.
o Urban renewal and Transit-Oriented Development (TOD) in the existing cities. Especially
related to the stations of Bus Rapid Systems that many cities are constructing and around the
metro stations in Medellín and in the future in Bogotá.
o Between academics and some public servants and private developers there is a wish for more
human friendly cities. More effort will be put to stimulate walking and biking and high
quality public space design.
o Territorial and integral regional planning are topics that national and departmental
governments are interested in to have a more coordinated and competitive development of
urban regions.
o The growth of public transport systems, airports and public facilities asks for wayfinding
solutions and signage design.
o Service design is a topic widely mentioned by everyone in the design industry. This branch of
design is becoming more relevant for any industry that wishes to become more competitive
in the market.
o Many ‘luxury brands’ are entering the market, which asks for new techniques and
propositions in Packaging and POP material.
o Visual thinking and creative facilitation are topics that are starting to gain importance in the
academic field in Colombia. Several companies are asking for this kind of expertise to
improve their innovation processes.
o The process of design in many cases demands for appropriate and rigorous Design Research.
With a growing digital and servitized world, design research plays a key role in organizations
that are growing in these directions.
o Leads for government-to-government collaboration in many fields that aren't mature for
doing business.
Challenges
• Colombia is not well-known or even mentioned by designers and architects that would like to work abroad.
• The Colombian culture is distinctly different from the Dutch culture. Colombians ask for concrete and
proven products, warm relationships, communications in Spanish and with the right means.
• Larger firms in the field of industrial design, urban design and architecture seem the most promising ones
to do business in Colombia. However, most companies in the Creative Industries are rather small.
• Colombians seem hesitant about possible collaborations. Effective collaboration with local offices is
essential for Dutch offices to enter a new market successfully.
• Creative offices lack strong business development. They could enter the market through existing clients or
by joining tenders and competitions.
• Working in Colombia needs preparation: administrative duties need to be organized and a local
representative, for example a registered architect, is essential during the process.
• Trade fairs aren't the right place to do business. Specific events, aimed at the sectors, are the appropriate
place to show the companies’ work, find a network or a local partner.
• Most collaboration between universities happens at a university level (instead of at a faculty level, for
instance). Knowledge exchange works the best between faculties or (governmental) departments on topics
that have the interest of both institutions.
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Strategy
Easy steps: Connect
• Colombia and its opportunities need to be promoted inside the Dutch Creative sector.
• Start with culture and end with business. Groups or individuals participating in cultural events and/or fairs
have a good chance to meet potential clients and design agencies for collaboration.
• Spread the word. Many designers that work abroad are asked by their current clients about their
experiences. Let your clients know that you are interested in working abroad and tell them about the
opportunities in Colombia.
More difficult steps: Learn and work together

• Exchanges between faculties in which researchers and students can participate could favour business
relations between both countries. If designers could join these exchanges, then it could open their market
because Colombian universities might be a good starting point for doing business with the industry.
• Dutch offices need a local partner to do projects, build up a local portfolio and demonstrate the added
value of integrated solutions. This could be achieved by collaborations between Dutch and Colombian
offices and with other Dutch entrepreneurs to make crossover between the sectors.
• Some topics aren't mature enough for doing businesses. Government-to-Government cooperation could
help to overcome this gap and could help to position Dutch designers with relevant stakeholders.
• ‘Seeing is believing’. If influential people in these fields came to the Netherlands, they could experience
Dutch design and its strengths.
Harder: Long term presence

• Information about tenders, work and activities in both countries should be shared.
• An iconic project to demonstrate the Dutch skills could help to enter the Colombian market.
RESUMEN EJECUTIVO
Este informe presenta los resultados y descripción general de la misión de reconocimiento destinada a
encontrar oportunidades y desarrollar una estrategia para estimular negocios, intercambio de conocimiento o
colaboración en los campos de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Diseño (Industrial y Gráfico) entre Colombia y los
Países Bajos. El proyecto fue encargado por la Netherlands Enterprise Agency Transition Facility Colombia (RVO), y
está basado en investigación documental y en entrevistas a profundidad en ambos países.
Colombia y los Países Bajos:

• Colombia hacía parte de los países dentro de la categoría de transición. Hasta mediados de 2015 se realiza
una transición de cooperación para el desarrollo hacia la colaboración económica entre ambos países.
Colombia es considerada a nivel internacional como un país con un gran potencial debido a su clima de
inversión relativamente bueno, a sus políticas económicas sólidas, a un sector financiero bien desarrollado, a
un rápido crecimiento de la clase media, a su población relativamente joven, al crecimiento de las ciudades y
a su situación política estable.
• Colombia ocupa el puesto 39 en la economía mundial. El país está dividido en 32 departamentos y tiene una
población de alrededor de 48,6 millones de habitantes. Para esta misión, y por la relación con el tema de las
industrias creativas, se hizo un enfoque en cuatro ciudades principales: Bogotá, Medellín, Cali y
Barranquilla.
Las industrias creativas en los Países Bajos:

• Los Países Bajos se centra en 9 sectores ‘top’ para mantener la economía holandesa vital y en los que la
internacionalización es una prioridad. Uno de estos sectores es ‘las industrias creativas', del cual hacen parte
el diseño, la arquitectura y el urbanismo.
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• Las principales características de diseño holandés, en general: pragmático, de mentalidad abierta, conceptual,
out of the box y adherido al principio 'menos es más'. El diseño holandés también fusiona la innovación, la
creatividad y los negocios. El sector creativo holandés tiene una buena reputación e imagen en Colombia.
• Los arquitectos holandeses demuestran fortalezas en el diseño y construcción de edificios complejos de usos
múltiples y en edificios públicos. El urbanismo holandés es bien conocido por su enfoque en el que las
partes trabajan juntas y activamente en soluciones integradas.
• Los diseñadores holandeses son fuertes en los procesos, en las soluciones integradas y en la gestión del
diseño. Algunos campos son particularmente bien conocidos en el campo del diseño holandés: El diseño de
servicios, el diseño de empaques, wayfinding, la investigación en la experiencia de usuario (UX), el diseño de
interacción, y la sostenibilidad.
Las industrias creativas en Colombia:

• Las industrias creativas en Colombia son un sector en proceso de maduración. En general, no existen
políticas gubernamentales adecuadas para las industrias creativas. Sin embargo, la oferta académica es
comparable a la de las universidades europeas y americanas, lo que crea un buen clima para el intercambio
de conocimientos.
• El público en general todavía considera al diseño como un "bien de lujo" y no como una necesidad. Esto
conduce a una mala comprensión del papel que podría desempeñar el diseño como un acelerador de
negocios. Además, no existe mucha innovación en los campos del diseño, el urbanismo y la arquitectura.
• Publicaciones de diseño, concursos y eventos están comenzando a aparecer en Colombia, y parecieran tener
más importancia para la industria, lo que podría haber generado oportunidades para oficinas nacientes. Esto
parece haber dado lugar a la apertura de oficinas y a la búsqueda de colaboraciones por parte de agencias
internacionales en el país junto a socios colombianos.
El mercado y la demanda
• La mayoría del trabajo de diseño en Colombia se realiza para organizaciones privadas que no tienen equipos
de diseño in-house, o que desean diversificar su portafolio y no tienen el conocimiento específico necesario
para sus casos particulares. Sin embargo, solo algunas de estas organizaciones parecen reconocer el valor real
del diseño – no hay una 'cultura del diseño' contundente en el país.
• La empresa privada, las Cajas de Compensaciones y las entidades públicas son los principales contratistas en
temas de arquitectura y urbanismo. La regulación de la contratación pública en Colombia es muy estricta
debido a la prevención de la corrupción, y hacer parte de licitaciones requiere de preparación debido a los
cortos plazos de entrega y a la carga administrativa respectiva.
• Resumen de las posibles directrices (leads) que fueron identificadas durante la misión para todos los
sectores:
o Diseño sostenible para viviendas y soluciones sostenibles para la planificación urbana. A
mediados de 2016 una nueva ley se hará efectiva para hacer las viviendas más sostenibles.
También en los barrios se están buscando soluciones para la sostenibilidad.
o El gobierno nacional tiene la educación como una de sus principales prioridades. En los
próximos años, muchas escuelas serán construidas o renovadas.
o El turismo en Colombia está creciendo y existe la necesidad de una infraestructura de
turismo mejor equipada. La construcción de hoteles y centros turísticos está en auge, gracias a
los beneficios fiscales ofrecidos por el gobierno. Además, los aeropuertos están siendo
mejorados.
o La Renovación Urbana y el Desarrollo Orientado al Tránsito (TOD) en las ciudades existentes.
Especialmente en relación con las estaciones de Bus Rapid Systems que en muchas ciudades se
están construyendo y alrededor de las estaciones del metro de Medellín y en el futuro en
Bogotá.
o Entre académicos, algunos servidores públicos y los promotores privados hay un deseo de
ciudades mas amigables con los seres humanos. Se pondrá un mayor esfuerzo para estimular el
caminar y el andar en bicicleta y el diseño de espacio público de alta calidad.
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o La planificación regional territorial e integral son temas que los gobiernos nacionales y
departamentales están interesados para tener un desarrollo más coordinado y competitivo de
las regiones urbanas.
o El crecimiento de los sistemas de transporte público, aeropuertos e instalaciones públicas,
pide soluciones de wayfinding y diseño de señalización.
o El Diseño de Servicios es un tema ampliamente mencionado por todo el mundo en la
industria del diseño. Esta rama del diseño es cada vez más relevante para cualquier industria
que desea llegar a ser más competitiva en el mercado.
o Muchas marcas de lujo están entrando en el mercado, que piden nuevas técnicas y
proposiciones en el diseño de empaques y material POP.
o El pensamiento visual (visual thinking) y la facilitación creativa (creative facilitation) son temas
que están empezando a cobrar importancia en el campo académico en Colombia. Varias
compañías están pidiendo este tipo de experiencia para mejorar sus procesos de innovación.
o El proceso de diseño en muchos casos exige una Investigación en Diseño adecuada y rigurosa.
Con un mundo digital y de servicios en crecimiento, la investigación del diseño juega un
papel clave en las organizaciones que están creciendo en estas direcciones.
o Las directrices de colaboración de gobierno a gobierno en muchos campos no están lo
suficientemente maduras para hacer negocios.
Desafíos:
• Colombia no es conocida ni mencionada frecuentemente por diseñadores o arquitectos holandeses que
buscan trabajar en el exterior.
• La cultura colombiana es claramente diferente a la cultura holandesa. Los Colombianos esperan resultados
concretos y probados, relaciones cálidas, que las comunicaciones sean en español y por los medios
adecuados.
• Las empresas más grandes en el campo del diseño industrial, el diseño urbano y la arquitectura parecen
tener el mayor potencial para hacer negocios en Colombia. Sin embargo, la mayoría de las empresas en las
industrias creativas son bastante pequeñas.
• Los colombianos parecen tener dudas acerca de posibles colaboraciones. Sin embargo, la colaboración
efectiva con oficinas locales es esencial para que las oficinas holandesas puedan entrar en un nuevo
mercado exitosamente.
• Las oficinas creativas carecen de un desarrollo significativo en el tema de los negocios. Estas podrían entrar
en el mercado a través de clientes existentes o uniéndose a concursos y licitaciones.
• Trabajar en Colombia requiere de mucha preparación: las tareas administrativas deben estar organizadas a
tiempo, y un representante local, por ejemplo un arquitecto registrado, es esencial durante el proceso.
• Las ferias no son el lugar adecuado para hacer negocios. Eventos específicos, dirigidos a cada uno de los
sectores, son el lugar adecuado para mostrar el trabajo de las empresas, encontrar una red o un socio local.
• La mayoría de las colaboraciones entre universidades suceden a nivel universitario (y no a nivel de facultad,
por ejemplo). El intercambio de conocimientos es más efectivo entre facultades o departamentos
(gubernamentales) sobre temas de interés para ambas partes.
Estrategia
Pasos sencillos: Conectar
• Colombia y sus oportunidades deben ser promovidos dentro del sector creativo holandés.
• Comenzar con la cultura y terminar con los negocios. Grupos o individuos que participan en eventos
culturales y / o ferias tienen una buena oportunidad de conocer a clientes potenciales y agencias de diseño
para promover posibles alianzas.
• Spread the word. Los clientes actuales de muchos diseñadores que trabajan en el extranjero les preguntan
acerca de sus experiencias. Hágale saber a sus clientes que usted está interesado en trabajar en el extranjero y
cuénteles acerca de las oportunidades en Colombia.
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Pasos más difíciles: Aprender y trabajar juntos

• Los intercambios entre facultades, en los que investigadores y estudiantes participan, podrían favorecer las
relaciones comerciales entre ambos países. Si los diseñadores pudieran unirse a estos intercambios, esto
podría abrir nuevos mercados ya que las universidades colombianas podrían ser un buen punto de partida
para hacer negocios con la industria.
• Las oficinas holandeses necesitan un socio local para hacer proyectos, crear un portafolio y demostrar el
valor agregado de las soluciones integradas. Esto podría lograrse mediante la colaboración entre las oficinas
de Holanda y Colombia y con otros empresarios holandeses para hacer crossovers entre estos sectores.
• Algunos temas no están lo suficientemente desarrollados para hacer negocios. La cooperación gobierno a
gobierno podría ayudar a superar esta brecha y además podría ayudar a posicionar los diseñadores
holandeses en la industria colombiana.
• ‘Ver es creer'. Si personas influyentes en estos campos visitaran los Países Bajos, podrían experimentar el
diseño holandés y conocer sus fortalezas.
Más difícil: Presencia a largo plazo

• La información sobre las licitaciones, el trabajo y las actividades de ambos países debe ser compartida.
• Un proyecto emblemático para demostrar las habilidades de los holandeses podría ayudar en la penetración
del mercado colombiano.
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CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION, RESEARCH

QUESTIONS AND APPROACH
1.1. INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH QUESTION
Colombia's marketing slogan is Magical Realism.
This fact-finding mission researched the magic that
the Colombian market offers for Dutch
architecture, urbanism and design companies and
how to make that magic real. Research on the
Colombian offer was conducted, not only for
businesses, but also for possibilities of knowledge
exchange and collaboration between governments
and NGO's in these fields.
Colombia was part of the countries with the

transition category. Until half way 2015 a transition
is made from development cooperation towards
economical collaboration. "The transition countries
of Colombia, Vietnam and South Africa are part of
the ‘CIVETS’ group of countries (Colombia,
Indonesia, Vietnam, Egypt, Turkey and South
Africa) that are internationally considered to have
great potential because of their relatively good
Source: ProColombia www.colombia.travel
investment climate, sound economic policies, well
developed financial sector, rapidly growing middle class, relatively young population, growth of cities and
1
stable political situation ". This special status could turn Colombia into a promising market for Dutch
designers, which led to the following research questions for this mission.
"What is the demand of Colombia in the fields of urbanism, architecture and design;
which opportunities offer this demand for Dutch institutions to do business, to
exchange knowledge or to collaborate with their Colombian counterparts; and what
are the challenges and strategies to seize these opportunities"
In this research, the term ‘design’ is used to refer to graphic and product design, and ‘urbanism’ as urban
planning and urban design.
1.2 APPROACH AND STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT

Approach
This fact-finding mission started by identifying the Dutch offer by private and public parties and the
Colombian demand in the aforementioned sectors. Next, the gap between the Dutch offer and the Colombian
demand was defined, in order to formulate a coherent strategy to overcome this gap. This approach was chosen
because the existence of a Colombian demand does not necessarily mean that it can be satisfied by the Dutch
expertise. For instance, regional planning might be needed in Colombia, and the Netherlands has the expertise
to tackle this. However, some in-between steps would be necessary before it could be implemented or tendered
and a strategy for knowledge exchange and collaboration could be more effective to start with.
The Dutch offer is defined based on interviews with relevant stakeholders in the sector as well as on desk
research. This research provided insights about the strong and weak points of the sectors, the main questions
designers have before investing in a specific country, and also how some Dutch designers have experienced
1
Vietnam and South Africa In transition from aid to investment. Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, June 2012
11
working in Colombia. The Colombian demand is researched in the same way, a desk research carried out in the
Netherlands and several interviews with relevant stakeholders in Colombia. At the end, a strategy is defined to
bridge the gap between supply and demand.
Structure of the report

After the introduction, research questions and approach, the following chapter (2) presents the Dutch offer.
The chapter starts with a general introduction to the sectors and the way they are organised, finalizing with a
general overview of strong and weak points of the Dutch offer. Dutch designers that work abroad have already
some general questions before entering a new market. These questions are listed. Finally, some Dutch designers
that have worked in Colombia shared their experience in order to understand better the positive and negative
aspects of working in Colombia.
Chapter 3 is about Colombia. The chapter presents some general information about the country, the sectors,
and the reason why four cities were selected for an in-depth research. In these four cities, relevant stakeholders
were asked about the policies, the way they work and assign projects, their plans for the coming years, what
they think is missing and their willingness to collaborate with Dutch public and private parties. Chapter 4 up
to 6 are respectively about Design, Architecture and Urbanism in Colombia, the relevant stakeholders, possible
clients and the leads for doing business and exchange knowledge. The last chapter (7) define the challenges that
Dutch and Colombian parties could experience and an integrated strategy to enter the Colombian market.
Finally, the attachments give background information about the interviews and links to the sources and
institutions for more information about the Colombian market.
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CHAPTER 2. DUTCH OFFER IN THE SECTORS OF

URBANISM, ARCHITECTURE AND DESIGN
The Netherlands has a specific offer in the sectors of urbanism, architecture and design. This chapter presents
an overview of the sectors, different products offered in them, and strengths and weaknesses at an
international level. Besides, some information about experiences of Dutch creative firms working in Colombia
is provided.
Markthal Rotterdam designed by MVRDV. Source: www.flickr.com/photos/mattingham/16138878237.jpg
2.1 CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN THE NETHERLANDS

The Netherlands focuses on 9 "top sectors" to keep the Dutch economy vital. The creative industries are one of
these top sectors. In the top sectors, smart collaboration between entrepreneurs, researchers and the public
sector is necessary in order to promote innovation and exports. The creative industries are divided in media and
entertainment, the arts and heritage sector, and the creative business services sector. What these three have in
common is that their economic activity depends on the ability to innovate, to imagine, to create meaningful
products or services and to subsequently sell these to other businesses or to consumers. The creative business
sector differs from the other two in that the relevant firms work mainly for other businesses and public parties.
Specifically, they specialise in communications and advertising, architecture, urbanism and the various design
2
disciplines .
2
Designing a country, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, 2014
13
Some data about the creative industry:

3
According to the Martin Prosperity Institute , the Netherlands ranks in the top 10 of the creative industries in
the world. Leading countries globally are Australia, United States and New Zealand. In Europe, Denmark,
Finland, Sweden and Iceland have the lead. Colombia is in place 71 of the total 139 countries. The position is
based on indicators for Talent, Technology and Tolerance.
With regard to trade figures, job opportunities or registrations of brands and patents, Holland ranks
consistently between the fourth and tenth place internationally. For example, on the global ranking of creative
exporters, the Netherlands is eighth. The annual turnover of Dutch creative industries is about € 7.1 billion,
representing 1.9% of the Dutch economy.
4
The total amount of people working in the creative industries in the Netherlands reaches the 179.000 . Of this
total, the creative business sector offers the following jobs to 47.808 graphic and interaction designers, 6.048
product designers, 3.744 interior designers and 10.500 architects (including urban planners and designers).
In the creative sector 66% of the 179,000 people are self-employed, being the highest percentage compared to
other sectors. The average size of firms is therefore relatively small.
2.2 ORGANIZATION OF THE SECTOR

As mentioned before, the Creative Industries is considered one of the 9 top sectors with economic potentials
for the future. At national level, the top sector ‘Creative industries’ has four goals: Knowledge and Innovation,
Human Capital, Finance and Internationalization. The team of top sectors started for example, the Dutch
Creative Council, the Federation of Dutch Creative Industries, Creative Holland and ClickNL.
The Dutch creative council is an independent advisory board for the Creative Industries. The Council is the
contact office and coordinates the execution of the agenda of the top sector. The Council decides for example,
which countries, fairs and exhibitions are most promising for internationalization of the sector.
The Federation of Dutch Creative Industries is a collaboration between eight associations. Aiming at
internationalization; the Federation launched together with the ministries of Economy, Foreign affairs and
Culture the platform "Creative Holland". This platform helps creative organizations to expand abroad and is
the contact point for international organization interested in the Dutch creative sector.
ClickNL is the knowledge and innovation network of the top sector. In the coming years (2016-2019), their
agenda focuses on: societal challenges regarding Inclusive and innovative society, sustainable energy and
circular economy, and living longer healthier. These challenges should be approached through cross sector
collaboration and public private partnerships.
Internationalization is a priority for each top sector. Therefore, cross sector approaches are stimulated such as
‘Sustainable Urban Delta’, initiated by the top sector Energy and now part of the Holland branding.
Each field of design has its own association: BNA represents architecture, BNSP is meant for urbanism and
BNO unites designers. BNO and BNA give special attention to internationalization. BNA, for example, has two
groups of offices working abroad, (with branch office abroad or working experience abroad). These groups
share strategies and experiences. BNSP does not give special attention to internationalization.
The Creative Industries fund subsidizes projects and programs of the design sector. They have subsidy for
international collaboration, market expansion, and to promote the Dutch creative sector.
The New Institute exhibits, researches, publishes and discusses the fields of architecture, design and e-culture
through a large exhibition space in Rotterdam. According to the website of www.creatieveindustrieinbeeld.nl
3
http://martinprosperity.org/media/Global-Creativity-Index-2015.pdf
4
Monitor Topsectoren, CBS, 2015
14
the Institute will start a coordination point at the end of 2015 and it will receive extra funds starting in 2017
for the internationalization of the design discipline.
The figure below shows the way all these organizations are related:
5
Source: Designing a country, creative industries in the Netherlands (2014, Ministry of Education, Culture and Science)
Many cities have their own organization and programs for the creative industries, like the Taskforce
Innovation region Utrecht, and platforms for debate such as Casa in Arnhem and Mediamatic in Amsterdam.
In the field of research, education and knowledge, the Universities of Delft, Eindhoven and Twente are the
best known. Delft and Eindhoven offer bachelor, master and PhD programs in design, attracting many foreign
students and researchers. They all have a large network of collaboration with universities abroad.
Several NGO's or public private collaborations are currently dealing with the issue of internationalization;
such as "Grensverleggers" from the CSR of the Netherlands (MVO Nederland), "the Dutch Urban Approach", "
Netherlands Water Partnership" and "Dutch Cycling Embassy".
For an overview of the most relevant Dutch organizations in the creative industries see Appendix 2.
2.3 DUTCH OFFER IN THE SPECIFIC SECTORS

This subsection introduces the disciplines that were researched for this fact-finding mission.
Architecture: Design of new buildings and transformation of existing buildings from the first concept up to the
final design and construction drawings. Dutch architects are particularly known for qualities and
specialisations such as thinking out-of-the-box, their pragmatic approach and cost containment. The offer is
generally divided into:
• Residential, such as individual housing, villa's and apartment buildings; and
5
Publication can be downloaded from http://dutchcreativeindustries.nl/wp-content/uploads/Designing-a-Country-Creative
Industries-in-the-Netherlands_EN.pdf
15
• Non-residential building, for public utilities such as health care, educational facilities, culture and
commercial services such as shopping malls, offices and leisure.
Dutch architects are strong in complex multi-use buildings and public buildings; for example, a housing block
including sports and health facilities or a new market hall with housing on top such as the Markthal in
Rotterdam.
Urbanism: Spatial and functional design of living and working environments. Urbanism has a strong relation
with policymaking and long term planning, starting from visions for the spatial development of the whole
country up to detailed designs for streets. Urbanism is:
• Design at multiple scales, from street level, to neighbourhood, city, region and up to the national scale.
• Focus at quality of life and work in existing cities (urban renewal) or in urban expansions.
• Design for different functions, such as living areas, industrial zones, campuses, leisure areas, public spaces,
landscapes, parks and mobility.
Dutch urbanism is well-known for its approach in which different stakeholders actively work together on
integrated solutions. For example, the design and planning of transit-oriented developments that enable the
use of different transport modalities in a high quality urban environment.
Industrial design: discipline that makes reference to the design of products (and services) for serial or mass
industrial production. It is about synergy between aesthetics, functionality, price and production, materials and
manufacturing methods. Dutch Design refers to the design aesthetics that all Dutch designers seem to have:
6
minimalistic, experimental, innovative and unconventional, plus a sense of humour . Design is divided into:
• Consumer products. For example household supplies such as vacuum cleaners and tables.
• Industrial products. For example for the agro, healthcare and sports industries.
• Service and inclusive design in which processes and services are the final product.
The Dutch are strong in packaging and service design, for example the design of how a customer experiences a
purchase process.
Graphic design: Visualization and illustration of ideas and information into diagrams, pictograms, maps and
data. It is about making brand design and styling books, advertisements, magazines, websites, etc. Some fields of
expertise are:
• Typography and calligraphy; designing letters, words and texts.

• Web design, designing accessible and stylish websites.
• Wayfinding, designing routes and signs at for example airports.
Dutch are well-known for their concepts and the 'less is more' principle. A famous reference is the wayfinding
at Schiphol airport that has been used as an example for many airports in the world.
2.4 TRENDS
In general, for all the design disciplines the trends are similar and are about putting the user first, and adding
quality to the products by applying new techniques:
• Sustainability: energy efficiency, use of materials and the use of the products by applying methods, theories
and concepts such as Breeam, cradle2cradle and circular economy. A strong focus is at reuse, recycling of
products and/or transformation of existing buildings and areas.
• Smart: using data to make products, buildings and cities that are more responsive.
6
www.creativeholland.com
16
• (Building) Information Model (BIM) for access to information and chain co-operation.
• Integrated and cross over approaches with other sectors such as water, energy, health and mobility.
• Participation of stakeholders and inclusive design.
• Integrated contracts in which design, building, maintenance and finance are combined; and
• Clients focus less on technical requirements and more on quality criteria to use the knowledge of designers,
consultants and constructors.
2.5 THE DUTCH SECTOR IN AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Strong points
The strengths of Dutch design: “pragmatic, open-minded, conceptual and out of the box thinking, and adhering
to the ‘less is more’ principle. Dutch design also fuses innovation, creativity and business. Dutch creativity
proves that creativity makes businesses more innovative, competitive and prosperous” (fact sheet Creative
7
Industries Nuffic) . Dutch adapt easy, blend into the local scene, and are trustworthy and structured.
The Netherlands is strong in processes and design management. Designers are not separated from the rest of
the process, but involved from the beginning and take part in interdisciplinary approaches to create integrated
8
designs . This is considered a specific asset of Dutch designers.
Dutch universities and knowledge institutions are well-known. Especially the universities of Delft, Twente en
Eindhoven attract many foreigners for their master’s programs and PhD opportunities.
Points of attention
The role of design: the Netherlands has a strong focus on conceptual thinking, experiments and aesthetics, but
these aspects are often less important abroad where functionality is leading. "Out of the box thinking" and
experiments are often appreciated in the design and cultural sector, but other sectors do not fall for these
approaches.
Dutch designers are strong in processes and integrated solutions. Foreigners often underestimate the time
involved in design processes and the costs that are involved in hiring Dutch designers. Many designers offer a
process with a product at the end, while foreigners are more interested in a concrete product.
Designers often join tenders and competitions to enter a market but in general the sector lacks a strong
international business development.
The sector consists mainly of small- and medium-sized offices and these offices often do not have the time and
money to invest in internationalization.
Challenges for working abroad

BNA international has researched the challenges for offices that would like to work abroad. Most often
mentioned are:
• Legislation and liability.

• Obligation to collaborate with local architects and to find the right partner. This also relates to the
willingness of local designers and associations to collaborate with foreigners.
• Cultural differences in doing business, the appreciation and role of design and "taste".
• The effort for doing business is too high. It takes too much time, it is too expensive, and keeping relations
warm takes too much effort.
7
https://www.hollandalumni.nl/files/documents/career/factsheets-key-sectors/factsheet-creative-industries
8
Kansen op de Duitse markt, Hogeschool Inholland Rotterdam, september 2011
17
CHAPTER 3. INTRODUCTION TO COLOMBIA
This chapter introduces Colombia by giving information about political boundaries, the economy and the rate
of urbanization. Because of the size of the country, in subsection 4.3 the reasons for the selection of four cities
to start the exploration for business opportunities are explained. The last section of the chapter is about the
Creative Industries in Colombia.
3.1 COUNTRY, DEPARTMENTS, METROPOLITAN REGIONS AND MUNICIPALITIES

The republic of Colombia is the fourth largest country in South-America after Brazil, Argentina and Peru and
it is 27,5 times larger than the Netherlands. Colombia has an estimated population of 48.6 million (2015) mainly
living along the Caribbean coast and the Andean highlands. The main language is Spanish. Colombia has thirty
two departments with a chosen council and governor.
In the country, 6 metropolitan areas are constituted around the cities of Medellin, Pereira, Valledupar,
Bucaramanga, Barranquilla and Cucuta. The metropolitan authorities are responsible for transport,
environment and planning.
Colombia has, according to DANE, 1123 municipalities including 5 districts. The largest city and capital of
Colombia is Bogotá, which has a population of 7.9 million, but the greater metropolitan area around Bogotá
has a population of more than 12 million. Other major cities are Medellin (2.5 million), Cali (2.4 million) and
Barranquilla (1.2 million). Each city had a chosen a new mayor at the end of 2015.
3.2 ECONOMY AND URBANIZATION

Colombia has the world’s 39th largest economy, ahead of
Finland, Chile and just after Denmark (274 billion USD
in 2015 according to the World Economic Outlook,
October 2015). Due to the oil price, the panorama for the
Colombian economy in 2016 seems more complicated
than in 2015. However, Colombia stands up above other
economies in the region with a planned growth of 3%,
low compared with previous years but high in relation
to other medium and large economies in South-America.
The main export industries are oil, mining and coffee;
the price for these products fluctuates and this has an
effect on the growth of the economy, the exchange rate
of the Peso and balance of the government because 20%
9
is oil-related income .
Colombia ranks 54th out of 189 countries on the World
Bank’s ‘Doing Business Index’ (the Netherlands ranks
28th).
The Netherlands focuses on Colombia in the sectors of

water, agro industry, and waste and biomass. A Dutch
chamber of commerce (Holland house) was opened in
2013 to promote and help trading, imports and exports.
Political map of Colombia. Source:

commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Atlas of Colombia
9
source: https://insights.abnamro.nl/2016/01/colombia-focus-olieprijs-gooit-roet-in-het-eten/
18
Urbanization and growth

Colombia is highly urbanized. According to the World Bank, 76% of the population lives in urbanized areas
(2014) with this percentage rising (72% in 2000). The Netherlands is 90% urbanized (2014). In the construction
sector, growth is expected. As stated by the president of CAMACOL, a growth of 11,7% in sales of new
housing is expected, while the construction sector will contribute to 5,2 % of the National Gross Product
(NGP). The national policies to stimulate building and purchase of housing will add to this to achieve around
10
9,7% of the NGP.
The growth is larger in the small and medium sized cities. While the large cities have reached their city limits
and are not able to expand, smaller cities around absorb the growth. In other parts of the country the average
11.
income has increased and this makes the smaller cities attractive for shopping malls, housing, offices, etc
3.3 WHERE TO START?

Where to start in a country with more than 1000 municipalities? For this Fact-finding four cities were selected.
Bogotá and Cali are researched for all the sectors, while in Medellin the focus was given on design and in
Barranquilla on urbanism and architecture. In general, the main cities offer more opportunities for designers,
while smaller cities are for urban planners and architects.
Bogotá, Antioquia (capital city Medellin) and

Valle del Cauca (capital city Cali) are the top PROJECT IN COLOMBIA
three in the indicators of the participation in
In the Rio Cali project, designed by West8 in which a group of
the National Gross Product (Percentage of
companies and citizens of Cali commissioned together the design of
NGP Bogotá: 25%; Antioquia 13%; Valle 9%), the lineal park along the Río Cali. According to West 8’s description
12
in the population growth rate 2000-2010 of the project: “they worked together with the Municipality of Cali
which includes Barranquilla in number 4, and intensively on the design of the park which is intended to create a
in the formation of urban households in safe and well connected urban realm and catalyze the renewal of the
13 urban centre.” The project was given to West 8 because a landscape
2015 in which Cundinamarca has number 4
approach was desired, understanding the costs involved in hiring
and Barranquilla number 5. In relation to the foreigners. The urban designer of West8 felt a positive vibe during
creative industries, the three cities have the the design of the project and noticed a strong believe in the fact that
best conditions in terms of human capital after the peace process the country has to be built together.
since they have the highest rate of graduates Problems that were experienced are the unawareness of the necessity
14 of urban design, the sector approaches while integrated ones are
in fields related to the creative industries
necessary, bureaucracy, lack of skilled constructors, and the
and Barranquilla is number 5 (according to methodology of construction logistics. West8 thinks Colombia
Invest in Bogotá). offers opportunity for design for public spaces and feels a necessity
for integrated neighbourhood planning. The first part of the
Furthermore, a study about the construction on the park started in July2015 and is scheduled to be
competitiveness of regions by the CEPAL inaugurated in 2016.
shows that Cundinamarca/Bogotá scores the
source:
highest followed by the regions of: Antioquia
http://www.cali.gov.co/publicaciones/parque_lineal_rio_cali_se_vuel
(Medellin), Caldas, Santander, Risaralda and ve_realidad_alcalde_guerrero_dio_inicio_al_primer_tramo_pub
Valle del Cauca (Cali) with a large difference
15
from the following departments in the ranking . It is important to consider not only the capital cities (Bogotá,
Medellin and Cali) but also the regions as a whole, in many cases growing at higher rates than the capital city.
The study by the IABD about intermediate cities identifies as cities within the agglomerations of Bogotá: Chia,
10
Source: http://www.elcolombiano.com/2016-un-ano-de-turbulencia-economica-CC3352703
11
Source: http://m.portafolio.co/economia/colombia-pasa-el-%E2%80%98boom%E2%80%99-las-ciudades
pequenas/?tamano=pequena
12
Rate of population growth 2000-2010: Bogotá 1,6%, Medellín 1,3%, Cali 1,2%, Barranquilla 0,7% Source: DANE
13
Estudios Económicos, CAMACOL, No. 69; Julio de 2015; ISSN 2011 - 7444
14
Graduated in higher education from creative industries in the region: Bogotá: 55,093; Antioquia 14,228; Valle del cauca 9,979.
Source: Invest in Bogota
15
Las ciudades intermedias con mayor potencial en Colombia. Un sistema de identificación; Patricia Torres Arzayús, Carlos Jorge
Caicedo Cuervo; BID 2015
19
16
Soacha and Zipaquira; of Medellin: Bello and Envigado; and of Cali: Yumbo and Barranquilla in the category
of highest potential.
Panoramic picture of Bogota. Source www.flickr.com/photos/robertocontrer/19263920981
Bogotá
Besides being the strongest region in economical terms, Bogotá hosts all the governmental entities at national
level, the associations in the sectors and representatives of international organizations. Bogotá houses the main
public and private entities that regulate and promote good practices in the fields of Industrial and Graphic
design in Colombia. Bogotá is the second destination in Latin America for foreign investment in the sector of
Creative Industries.
Cali
th
According to the departmental competitiveness index 2013, Valle del Cauca is the 4 most innovative Region in
Colombia, with Cali housing the majority of companies in the Creative Industries Sector. Cali's cultural
industries make a contribution that is located between 1.01% and 1.22% of the GDP of the city. Also, its share
in the National´s Culture GDP has been between 3.3% and 4.0%, being its biggest contribution in the fields of
design, architecture and advertisement. According to data of CAMACOL (Colombian Chamber of
Construction) on jobs generated by construction, Cali scores the highest in the period oct-2014-oct 2015 with
17
Bogotá in second position .
Medellin
Medellin, named ‘most innovative city’ in 2013, is according to a recent study by The Chamber of Commerce
the most competitive city in Colombia (even more so than Bogotá). It has a business density of 25 companies
per 1000 inhabitants. Medellin is promoting design. The fourth Feria de Diseño (design fair) takes place and as
part of this fair Medellin organized in 2015 the first Design Week (www.medellindesignweek.com).
Barranquilla
While in the main cities, the administration is of high quality and they are in less need of knowledge from
abroad, the international competition is also larger and therefore entering the market is more difficult. Small-
and medium-sized cities deal with many problems but do not have the right staff and knowledge to solve them.
Therefore, a secondary city with a growing economy, namely Barranquilla, is researched. Particularly for
Urbanism, the city and metropolitan area face large challenges. These challenges deal with public space, the
relation to the river, the expansion of the city and the relation to the natural surroundings and to the
economical activity of the harbour. Most of these challenges are in the agenda of the local authorities, but
there is not enough technical capacity to deal with them.
16
Escalafón de la competitividad de los departamentos de Colombia, 2015; Juan Carlos Ramírez J. Johan Manuel de Aguas P.; Serie
Estudios y Perspectivas, CEPAL
17
Source: http://www.camacol.co/sites/default/files/revista_urbana/Urbana64/Urbana64.html#p=28
20
3.4 STAKEHOLDERS CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

The Creative Industries is often grouped together with Cultural Industries, which covers dance, theatre,
performances, etc. For each sector the relevant stakeholders are written down in the following chapters, but
few organizations represent the whole sector and limit attention is given to the sector at a national level.
The Chambers of Commerce in each city conceive, plan and carry out projects related to the Creative
Industries. For instance in Bogotá there is the Cluster de Industrias Creativas (Creative Industries cluster), which
has specific projects to grow the industry in the city. Similarly, they are involved in themes of urban and
regional development. The local chamber of commerce often collaborates with regional and local governments
in terms of urban and regional planning, mobility and innovation. They also organize events and promote
publications around topical themes in these fields.
In Bogotá, Bogotá Innova gives support to companies involved in projects related to the creative industries.
Similar to this organization, Ruta N in Medellin gives support to the Creative Industries in the city and, most
importantly, supports international companies in the ´landing’ process, which is mainly a program for
(international) companies in the creative sector to start their businesses in the city.
3.5 PUBLIC ASSIGNMENTS

Regulation for public contracting in Colombia is very strict due to the prevention of corruption. There are
different forms of contracting that go from a complete public tender to direct contracting. The difference
between a public tender and direct contracting has relation to several aspects in which one important is the
price of the contract (larger contracts will be assigned by open tenders). Direct contracting is generally for one
consultant and a smaller project. Between these there are other varieties that include ‘concurso de méritos’ in
which consultants are selected on bases of their CVs, and ‘seleccion abreviada’ which is a shorter process than
the open tender.
18
All tenders from the public sector are published in the SECOP Sistema Electrónico de Contratación Pública .
Tenders which are financed by international funding like the World Bank have a different procedure; usually
there is a call for an ‘expression of interest’. In this case, procedures and papers required are less complex than
with fully public funded tenders. The calls for expression of interest are also published in SECOP.
If there is international cooperation money by a country’s development agency, like in the case of Findeter, the
country providing the financial help defines the way the tender can be developed. In many cases, consultancy
companies from that specific country need to be hired for the projects. When this is not required by the
development agency, a selection by invitation takes place.
Public assignments involving architectural design are generally assigned via an open design competition
organized in collaboration with the Sociedad Colombiana de Arquitectos.
For architects or urban planners/designers to join a tender or a design competition it is necessary to have a
local partner or representative (apoderado). This person should be a registered local architect that represents
the foreign office in Colombia.
Tenders in Design
Public tenders in design are rare. The interviewees expressed that design is mostly considered inside a bigger
tender. For instance, if the design of a hotel includes the interior design and the design of furniture pieces,
then the person that gets the tender hires designers for this purpose.
Tenders in Architecture
Last year, important tenders/design competitions for architects dealt particularly with design for social
infrastructure like the design of police stations, community centres, schools and healthcare facilities.
18
http://www.colombiacompra.gov.co/es/secop
21
In public tenders, the architectural design is only a part of what the tender asks for. For example, in the tender
for the studies and design of a police station and the tenders for schools in Bogotá, it is asked the soil and
topographic studies, the architectural, urban and landscape design under criteria of bioclimatic and
sustainability, the structural design the sanitation, water, electrical and gas plans, the plan for environmental
managing, the consecution of licenses and permits. Other tenders for architectural design include even the
construction of the building and the financial calculations, like the tenders for several educational buildings by
Findeter or the hospital of Gramalote by the Fondo Adaptación. Only architectural design competitions, which
are often organized in collaboration with the SCA, ask exclusively for the architectural design.
Tenders in urban design and planning

The recent tenders and competitions in urban projects show a tendency to projects of public space and
landscape design. The last open competition for urban design dealt with the design for the green corridor in
Cali, a design competition in two rounds (oct-nov 2015). Previous tenders dealt with designs of parks in
different cities. In urban design and planning there were barely any tenders; the last one found was at the end
of 2014 for the urban design and the management plan of a historical node and its surroundings in Bogotá.
3.6 EVENTS AND COMPETITIONS

Apart from more academic initiatives from within the universities, the following coming events and
competitions are the most widely known and mentioned in the studied sectors in Colombia. For each event, it
is indicated the sectors for which it is interesting: ID industrial design, GD graphic design, A architecture,
and/or U urbanism.
1. Medellin Design Week (ID GD)

Medellin Design Week is a yearly event that showcases good design practices from Colombian designers, and
th th
aims at bringing knowledge from abroad for their event. In 2016 it will be held from the 18 till the 24 of
June.
2. Bogotá Design Festival (ID GD)

This event follows the model that started in 2003 at the United Kingdom known as the London Design
Festival. It is meant to promote the creative industries in the country and to showcase good practices of
creativity in any domain (e.g. interior design, graphic design, digital design, product design, food design, etc.).
3. Festival internacional de la imagen (International Image Festival) (ID GD)

The International Image Festival, conducted by the Department of Visual Design at the University of Caldas, is
a meeting and debate on issues related to interactive design, media arts, audiovisual creation and
electroacoustic soundscapes, and in general, the new relationships between arts, design, science and
technology.
4. Premio Lápiz de Acero (ID GD A U)

The ceremony to award the ‘Lápiz de Acero’ is held since 1998. In all its versions, it has aimed at promoting
Colombian design in six main areas: (1) Product, (2) Costume, (3) Digital, (4) Graphic, (5) Space, and (6) Concept.
To date, this award is the most widely recognized prize given to Colombian designers.
5. ExpoCamacol 2016 (A U)
Event organized in Medellin every two years around construction, considered one of the most important fairs
about construction materials from Latin America. It has an academic event with seminars and an exhibition
area. Facts from the 2014 version: 440 exhibitors, 95 international from 20 countries, 53.970 visitors from which
1.317 were international.
6. Expo Construcción y expo Diseño (A U ID)

It is a fair hold in Corferias in Bogotá around construction, architecture, infrastructure and design. It is
criticised for being too commercial and missing discussion and proposition around the role of architecture and
design. Last time it attracted over 60.000 visitors.
22
7. Bienal de arquitectura, bienal iberoamericana de arquitectura, BIAU (A U)

These are the events hold every two years where the best projects of Colombian architecture and
Iberoamerican architecture are highlighted. It has different categories from regional planning, urban design to
interior architecture. It also awards research and publications. The BIAU is organized by Spain but it has a
reach and it is recognized as important in all South and Central American countries.
8. Construverde (A U)
This yearly event by the Colombian green council (CCCS), hold in May, is small in numbers (700 assistants last
year) but due to the increasing importance of sustainability in the country, it is a good showplace.
3.7 BUSINESS, KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AND COLLABORATION

During the desk research and interviews in Colombia many leads were identified that match the Dutch
expertise. Some of the identified leads are directed to businesses. That means they are more likely to generate
tenders or commissions in the near future. While other subjects that show a clear need (also expressed in the
interviews) are not yet considered a priority, or the existing possibilities are not known in Colombia. These
subjects might need to be first approached at governmental and knowledge exchange levels. The identified
leads per discipline are therefore split here in those that have a clearer client and in which the assignments are
more defined and those in which there is a clear need but not yet clear assignments.
When asked about interest for collaboration with Dutch institutions there is always positive response. As part
of professionalization of universities and with competition and international rankings, Colombian universities
aim at establishing more international cooperation and start to consolidate research groups that look for
recognition at Colciencias, the national institution dedicated to sciences. This might be interesting for Dutch
universities that are research-oriented and are interested in partnering up with similar institutions. Though
there is not as much money for research in Colombia as in the Netherlands, this does not mean that there is a
growing interest in doing it.
The topics which can be more interesting for collaboration and knowledge exchange are those subjects which
are not mature enough for businesses and which the country lacks. The most effective way of collaboration is
by preparing joint programs with Colombian Universities and work in concrete, actual cases. An example is
‘Help Manuel’, which was a joint program between TU Delft and EAFIT in which students of both universities
collaborated to design for the BoP communities of the country. This program was so successful, that there are
still yearly programs that repeat the same model.
In relation to architecture and urbanism, there are interesting examples by universities in other European
countries through the IABD emergent and sustainable cities project. In these examples, Colombian and
foreign students work together in a concrete project for one of the cities in the program. For example, the
University of Vienna worked together with Colombian students in the design of the transformation of the old
market in the centre of Monteria. Similarly, students from UniNorte worked together with students from the
ETH Zurich in low costs solutions for the communities in the centre of Barranquilla.
In the following chapters for each discipline a distinction is made between leads for business and the ones that
are more suitable to start with knowledge exchange.
23
CHAPTER 4. DESIGN IN COLOMBIA
Solar Car Primavera By EAFIT. Source: www.flickr.com/photos/eafit/18242048690
This chapter gives an overview on the current state of the design discipline, the most relevant stakeholders,
possible clients and the leads for business and knowledge exchange.
4.1 DESIGN IN COLOMBIA

Design in Colombia was primarily conceived as an academic discipline formalized in the sixties, for the case of
Graphic Design, and in the seventies, for the case of Industrial Design. Since then, both disciplines and its
branches (e.g. web design, design of POP material, packaging design) developed in parallel and acquired
continuing relevance for the productive sectors in Colombia.
In the seventies, the discipline started to gain some momentum because of the intention of turning it into a
relevant factor for the development of an industrialized economy, as well as a key discipline to improve
products. This happened within the program of export promotion, with entities such as Proexpo, which, for
instance, facilitated knowledge exchange with experts from abroad. Furthermore, in this same period,
specialized publications about the sector were born, and the first design associations were created.
In the nineties, the government of Cesar Gaviria liberalised the economy and this gave a boost to the design
discipline in the productive sector, and helped to legally establish it as a profession (particularly Industrial
Design – ley 157 de 1994). In this period, companies became more aware of the relevance of design for their
business models, and therefore started to hire designers more actively to complement their production and
development teams.
With the advent of the new millennium and the globalization, the discipline of design started to grow
progressively both academically and in the productive sector. For instance, awards such as Lápiz de Acero
started to recognize the value of Colombian design in several categories (since 1998), Universities such as Los
24
Andes and EAFIT started design programmes

with international collaborations, and design PROJECT IN COLOMBIA
firms from abroad landed in the country to
offer their specialised services (e.g. A Piece of The Faculty of Industrial Design Engineering (IDE) of the Delft
University of Technology (TU Delft) and EAFIT in Medellin have
Pie, Leo Burnett, Designit, Creable). From
been collaborating for several years. This includes exchange
2001 to 2014 it is estimated that there were programs between their students, and international projects such as
some 4.000 graduates of (professional) design- ‘Help Manuel’. In general, it was mentioned that students from
related disciplines in Antioquia (capital city Colombia are appreciated for their flexibility, their knowledge and
Medellin), 14.000 in Bogotá, and 5500 in Valle their capabilities to cooperate in different projects.
del Cauca (Capital City Cali)19. Other
initiatives worth mentioning in the recent past are the National Design System by the Professional
Commission of Industrial Design20, and the initiative by the British Council to characterize and map the
creative industries in Colombia21.
Nevertheless, many obstacles still persist for the development of the discipline as such, and especially in its
22
relation with the production industry. The lack of governmental support and of a ‘design culture’ in
Colombia are still evident both in the academic sector and, particularly, in the productive sector. These issues
will be discussed in detail later in this report.
Stakeholders
At national scale, there aren't any organizations that control and monitor the design discipline, and particularly
its professional practice. There is however, one organization that clusters the main academic programs in
design (graphic, industrial, costume, digital) called RAD (Red Académica de Diseño). This organization
promotes the discipline in the country, and gives support to its members for National and International
collaborations. Besides, they arrange academic events in which they aim at improving the design education in
the country. They cluster around 46 design programs in 29 universities.
4.2 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

Industrial Design in Colombia was born without a particular demand from the market (yet needing it). This
explains why the gap between the academic development of the profession and the real practice of design in
the industry just started to become smaller in the late nineties. There are at least 17 institutions that offer the
program, including several bachelor´s and master´s programmes and one Doctorate Programme in Design at
Universidad de Caldas in Manizales.
Policies
In Industrial Design, the law 157 of 1994 legally recognizes the discipline in the country. Since then, the
Professional Commission of Industrial Design (part of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism)
controls, monitors and promotes the discipline in the country. This commission is also responsible for issuing
the professional licence for Industrial Designers. This requirement is mainly valid for those working in public
entities. In relation to author’s rights, there are regulations for the protection of Industrial Design
(www.sic.gov.co/drupal/disenos-industriales) and for copyright processes (www.derechodeautor.gov.co). Apart
from this, there are no other relevant policies related to the practice of design in Colombia unless it is for
specific cases – e.g. the design of food packaging, which is regulated in the use of materials that are allowed to
be in contact with food.
Strong points
• The academic offer is comparable to that of European and American universities and universities have
many exchange programmes and agreement collaboration with foreign institutions.
19
http://bi.mineducacion.gov.co:8380/eportal/web/guest
20
http://www.mincit.gov.co/publicaciones.php?id=17751
21
www.britishcouncil.org.co/mapeo.pdf
22
The lack of a ‘Design Culture’ in the country is mentioned several times during our visit. This mainly refers to the lack of
understanding by the general public of the importance of design in the productive sector. In Colombia, many stakeholders argued,
there is not recognition of the real value of design and what it can do for the economy.
25
• Colombia has many production facilities to develop different kinds of products. This allows a connection
between design and production, which is not common in many European countries that produce mainly in
Asia.
• Even though many technologies arrive late in Colombia, in general companies have leading-edge
equipment to develop their products and prototypes.
• The workforce in Colombia is reasonably priced (but higher than in most Asian countries).
Points of attention
• The gap with academic institution and the industry is still big. Designers do not generally apply what they
learn during their studies.
• Design research, both academic and in the industry, is not very strong. Companies do not pay for it.
• In general, Industrial Designers work on the design of industrial products and are not yet immersed in the
new trends of design (e.g. service design).
• The general public still believes design is a ‘luxury good’ and not a necessity.
• Design agencies are almost non-existent. This could be explained by the before mentioned points of
attention.
4.2.1 STAKEHOLDERS FOR THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGN SECTOR

Associations and clusters
The Comisión Profesional Colombiana de Diseño Industrial is the entity, part of the Ministry of Commerce,
Industry and Tourism, designed by the national government to promote, control and monitor the exercise of
the profession in Colombia. In order to (officially) practice the Industrial Design profession a professional card
is necessary. This commission is in charge of issuing this card that certificates the professional in its practice.
Educational Institutions
There are many educational institutions in the country offering Industrial Design and related programs (e.g.
Product Design Engineering). Universidad Nacional, Universidad de Los Andes in Bogotá and AEFIT in
Medellin are the most well-known and actively collaborated with foreign universities in events, academic
exchange and research.
4.3 GRAPHIC DESIGN

Unlike Industrial Design, Graphic Design in
Colombia (and generally in the world) stems PROJECT IN COLOMBIA
from a long-standing culture of graphic arts,
editorial services and advertisement (later on The Design and Emotion conference 2015 named ‘The Colours of
including branding). This profession has Care’, was organized in collaboration with several universities in
therefore been more in contact with the Colombia (Los Andes, ICESI and EAFIT), and the Design and
Emotion Society of the Netherlands. This conference included the
industry, mainly because of the development
participation of private organizations such as Solutions Group in
of corporate images and branding of Bogota.
companies. The profession of Graphic
Designer as such was formalized in the sixties,
and to date there are over 20 Universities
offering the program in Colombia (including
Visual Design). It is estimated that there are
some 30.000 graphic designers in Colombia to
date.
The activities of Graphic Design in Colombia

are mainly developed within the sector of the
Graphic Communication Industry. This sector
is mainly composed by five subsectors:
26
(1) Editorial printing, (2) Advertising, (3) Packaging, (4) POP material, and (5) Branding (new subsector). In
Colombia there are about 10.000 companies in the sector, with over 60.000 direct employees and 100.000
indirect ones. Furthermore, it is estimated that the exports in this industry are rapidly growing, with a growth
of 24% from 2013 to 2014. In Bogotá, it is produced 52% of all production in the sector. 23
Although all these numbers give an optimistic outlook, during the interviews it was repeatedly mentioned that,
in general, companies do not see graphic design as a competitive advantage when they sell or buy their
products. As one interviewee said: “Graphic Design is included in the process, but it is not the most relevant
part”.
Strong points
• Growth of exports mainly in packaging and labelling.
• Quality of products. During the interviews with different stakeholders, it was suggested that the
Colombian graphic industries are at the forefront of innovation in Latin America.
• State-of-the-art technologies mainly imported.
• Good academic offer in many regions of Colombia.
Points of attention
• There are many new trends in the industry that still need to be adopted (e.g. web-based design).
• 85% of equipment is imported, while there is a possibility to develop innovative products and equipment in
Colombia.
• The Chinese exports are a considerable threat for the market because of the aggressive marketing strategies
and their low prices.
4.3.1 STAKEHOLDERS FOR THE GRAPHIC DESIGN SECTOR

ADGCO (Asociación de Diseñadores Gráficos de Colombia) is the biggest association of graphic designers in the
country. It is in charge of clustering the professionals, to support the development of the discipline, and to
represent their interests.
Andigraf is the biggest association of companies in the graphic and printing sectors in Colombia. They cluster
companies that design graphic material, and that produce it. They are the bridge between the organizations and
the government, and therefore represent the interests of the industry.
ADGORA clusters the advertisement agencies and industries in the country, and represents their interests.
4.4 POTENTIAL CLIENTS DESIGN

Private clients
Most work in Industrial Design in Colombia is done for private organizations that do not house designers, or
that want to diversify their portfolio and do not have the specific knowledge needed for their particular cases.
Private investment in Colombia is growing, and designers are needed to contribute to this growth in a strategic
and pragmatic way. Some design firms interviewed said their clients are as diverse as the discipline of design
can be. Projects from packaging and structural design, to consumer goods, and even some organizations are
starting to ‘sell’ design thinking as a service for companies interested in their growth. It was also mentioned
that big financial organizations and airlines, for instance, are now ‘buying’ service design to improve their
offer. In this sense, companies that are producing consumer goods and companies selling services are potential
clients for Dutch organizations.
It was mentioned during the interviews that graphic work in design is part of a larger industry: the graphic and
printing sectors. There are a few design studios and companies that specialize in these sectors. Large private
companies, often-multinational organizations, are the main stakeholders that could become potential clients.
23
Data provided by Andigraf and from an interview published in this link: http://www.dinero.com/edicion
impresa/pais/articulo/desafios-industria-grafica/208528
27
Design firms are rare in Colombia. Nevertheless, they seem to be interested in possible collaborations with
Dutch partners. These design firms are starting to grow and to invest in their capabilities to be able to compete
with their international counterparts.
Public clients and Cajas de compensación

Some of these organizations have projects that involve the Creative and Cultural Industries in the cities. These
organizations have, in many cases, resources to promote these industries, and are interested in investing in
foreign collaboration to improve and diversify their offer. It is worth mentioning however, that most of the
times this support is focused on small entrepreneurs that develop projects related to arts and crafts and not
directly to the Industrial (or Graphic) Design Discipline.
The ministries and other governmental organizations are many times involved in large-scale projects in the
country that involve design mainly coupled with other disciplines (see stakeholders in architecture). Even
though there are no direct public assignments for Industrial Design, it is safe to say based on the interviews
that many of these organizations could use design in their projects, and do so when necessary and wanted.
4.5 LEADS FOR BUSINESS AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

Leads for business
• Wayfinding solutions and signage design: As mentioned in the sectors of Architecture and Urbanism,
there are many projects that involve the renewal of cities and large-scale projects of construction such as
airports, metros, public transport systems, etc. These projects need a proper signage design and wayfinding.
It was mentioned that not many companies have this expertise in Colombia, and that the need for this
specialty is growing.
• Service Design: This branch of design is almost non-existent in Colombia. In various interviews it was
stated that the need for these kinds of designers is growing and that big corporations are starting to invest
in this design specialty. From Airlines to financial Institutions, service design can be positioned as an added
value to companies, and international agencies are starting to claim this piece of the market in the country
(e.g. Designit in Medellin).
• Design of Public Spaces (e.g. bus stops, bike lanes, trash bins): Colombian cities are growing, and there are
many projects (combined with urbanism) that could use the expertise of Dutch design firms. Knowledge
and expertise in topics such as Social Design and Design for Behaviour Change, which are commonly used
in Dutch agencies, could contribute to the quality of the public spaces.
• Packaging and POP material: The demand for luxurious and well-designed packaging and POP material is
rapidly growing. Besides, luxury brands are coming to Colombia to design, produce and sell their products.
Large corporations are asking for this kind of service and not many Colombian companies are able to do it
complying with their standards.
• Visual thinking and creative facilitation: Many Dutch organizations excel at these topics (e.g. workshops,
design jams, co-creation, visual communication design) and are quite unique in their offerings. In
Colombia, these topics are just starting to be relevant for companies, and it appears that this is an
opportunity for Dutch designers to work on.
• (Qualitative) Design research: Dutch designers are well-known for their research capabilities, and for their
ability to connect research and design (e.g. Interaction Designers are known for this expertise). This link is
not well developed in Colombia and could be an opportunity for academic institutions, as well as for
businesses that want to open up their market in the country.
Specific leads in the visited cities for design:

Bogotá
All the aforementioned leads apply for the capital city. As the capital city, Bogotá is the most interesting place
for doing business in design because of the presence of several design institutions and associations, universities
and the main large (multinational) companies in the country. Companies are expanding and the need for
specialised services is becoming more evident. A more specific opportunity is the development of projects in
the creative industries by the CCB.
28
Medellin and Cali

The leads already mentioned also apply to Medellin, which is often mentioned as being the most important
actor in the design field in the country. Medellin offers landing facilities for creative industries, festivals and
companies that have already invested in international collaborations (e.g. MUMA and Haceb), and seek new
collaboration opportunities.
The desk research ant interviews in Cali did not give many leads for Dutch participation in the field of design
in the city. The field seems to still be in its infancy, and there are not many private or public organizations
strongly promoting it. The interviewees mentioned that most businesses in the field are done in Bogotá and
Medellin. Nonetheless, this could also be seen as an opportunity for Dutch companies to invest and activate
the market.
Leads for knowledge exchange

• Design culture: The lack of a design culture seems to be a by-product (amongst others) of the lack of
governmental support to the sector. There are therefore many opportunities for government-to
government cooperation to stimulate the design culture in Colombia. Knowledge could be exchanged
about the added value that Dutch government sees in design, the reasons why design is considered a top
sector of the economy in the Netherlands and the tools and strategy the government has used to stimulate
this sector. At a later stage, this could become a considerable opportunity for the creative sector in the
Netherlands to show work and give advice about the way the industry could be organized.
• Design Policies: Policies and regulations related to design in Colombia are almost non-existent. The
Colombian law recognizes only Industrial Design as a profession, but gives limited attention to this sector.
A commission represents the sector inside the government (Comisión Profesional Colombiana de Diseño
Industrial), but it is rarely considered as a relevant area for investment. During the visit, the interviewees
expressed that there is a lack of a ‘leadership in design’ that promotes and invests in this topic. This is seen
as an opportunity for possible alliances with the Dutch government because the Dutch Design sector is
well organized and regulated to a larger extent.
• Copyright protection and patents: Most interviewees expressed discontent about the procedures for
protecting design in Colombia. Most processes, they argued, take a long time, are expensive and not very
powerful when protecting their creations. Besides, informality in Colombia makes it ‘easier’ to copy from
others. Especially in the field of graphic design, this is seen as a problem. This is a subject that could lead to
very fruitful government-to-government collaboration.
29
CHAPTER 5. ARCHITECTURE IN COLOMBIA
Church by Architect Simon Velez. Source www.flickr.com/photos/bbcworldservice/5181387487
This chapter gives an overview on the current state of the architecture discipline, the most relevant
stakeholders, possible clients and the leads for business and knowledge exchange.
5.1 ARCHITECTURE
Architecture in Colombia reached recognition as a discipline different from engineering in 1934 with the
creation of the Society of Colombian Architects (SCA) and with the creation of the first architecture faculty at
the National University in Bogotá in 1936. Architects educated abroad brought the ideas of modern
architecture to the country and to the new generations of architects. For along three decades architects were
very much connected with the discussions at
international levels and worked in actual PROJECT IN COLOMBIA
themes like for example social housing solutions
in Colombian cities. However, in the 80s and AUTARK is specialized in floating houses and was invited by RVO to
90s the provision of housing was left to a large present their product and ideas to the Colombian organizations
Comfama and Fondo Adaptación. Colombia had large flooding
extent to the private sector, which in many
problems after the rainy seasons of 2010-2011 and was interested in
cases did not have architectural or spatial the Dutch solution to build on water. Even if AUTARK won a public
quality as priority but economical profit. Many tender, none of the houses has been constructed. Major problems
Colombian cities grew largely without arose during the decision processes that were experienced as
involvement of architects but following mainly bureaucratic, hierarchic and time consuming. AUTARK wants to
focus now on the universities and private developers because of the
economical profit. Similarly, the cities also grew
ease of doing business. Up to now, their experience is that trying to
to a large extent in illegal settlements lacking enter the Colombian market is time and energy consuming.
architecture or urban design.
30
As a discipline, in 1987 the president approved the regulations for the honoraria of architectural commissions
that the SCA had contributed to develop, being this big contribution to the professionalization of the
discipline. The control of the profession came in 1998 with the establishment of the CCPA, which regulates
the use of the architecture title trough the professional register.
Rogelio Salmona was the representative of Colombian architecture and of brick architecture who would win
international recognition. In the late 90s and in this century, new generations of architecture and emerging
architectural firms started gaining recognition and to bring attention to the value of architectural design for
the quality of life of citizens. This has relation with an increase in the amount of public commissions assigned
by open design competitions, which gave opportunity to young offices to be selected. This started with the
transformation of Bogotá in which emblematic architecture designs of for example new libraries gained
international recognition, until the boom in the past decade particularly with the projects realized in Medellin.
At the same time, there has been an arrival of international architectural firms, particularly from the United
States and Spain as well as independent architects (to a large extend from Spain) looking for architectural
commissions in the country. This probably has relation with the 2008 crisis in Europe that strongly affected
the construction sector, as well as with the development of the Colombian economy and the presence of
foreign investment firms.
In relation to the Netherlands, Colombian architecture has had Dutch recognition in the past. For example, in
2011 Simon Velez received the Prince Claus Award for his architecture using "guadua" (a kind of bamboo).
Strong points
• The last years have seen a professionalization of the discipline and the emergence of young architectural
offices that have gained national (and sometimes international) recognition.
• Open architectural competitions to build infrastructure for the public sectors (cultural centres, schools,
libraries, etc) provide opportunities to enter the market.
• In legal terms, it is also positive that any request for a building permit needs the signature of a registered
architect. This contributes to the recognition of the profession.
Points of attention
• Even with the necessity of an architect’s signature to request a building permit, still for the common public,
the value of architectural design needs to be proved. The general belief remains that you can design your
own house yourself.
• The highest percentage of building is dedicated to housing, particularly social housing. However, due to the
financial restrictions there is not much architectural research on whether the offered solutions by the
market are the most adequate for the future inhabitants or for the climate and geographical conditions.
• There is not much innovation in terms of materials and construction techniques. There is a lack of qualified
workers for more standardized solutions and for solutions involving more sustainable materials.
Constructors and contractors are used to build with concrete and do not innovate. For example, building
with wood or bamboo (local materials) is not a common practice.
Relevant policies
• Policy that regulates the minimum honoraria to be charged by architecture offices: Decreto 2090-1989. It
defines the type for projects, the different phases of an assignment and the tasks for architects in each
phase and the honoraria per type of project and phase.
• Policy for sustainable construction (decreto 1285 de 2015) that will start to apply halfway 2016 for the main
five cities and half way 2017 for all the cities with more than 100.000 inhabitants.
31
5.2 STAKEHOLDERS FOR THE ARCHITECTURE SECTOR

Associations
The Consejo Profesional Nacional de Arquitectura y sus Profesiones Auxiliares (CPNAA) is the entity designed by the
national government to promote, control and monitor the exercise of the profession of Architecture and
Auxiliary Professions in Colombia. In order to officially practice the architectural profession (sign projects for
construction permit requests) a professional card is necessary. For foreign architects who want to work in
Colombia the CPNAA can issue, upon completion of requirements, a temporary licence valid for a year.
Architects are organized in the SCA, a non-profit association with national and regional branches. They
organize on request from different governmental organizations the design competitions.
CAMACOL is the non-profit association that puts together all the companies related with the value chain of the
construction business. Its vision is to lead the sustainable and responsible urban development, to decrease the
lack of housing and to drive the sector toward new business opportunities and new markets.
The CCCS (Colombian Green Building Council) is an association that aims at stimulating sustainable construction
in the country. They organize events, seminars and courses, share best practices on sustainable building and
monitor the improvements of the sector in terms of sustainability.
Educational institutions
There is a large offer of architecture studies in the country. The ACFA has 38 faculty members that offer at
least bachelor’s programmes in architecture. The faculties with a larger trajectory offer master’s programmes in
architecture and construction since the late 90s. Recently, there is a large interest of these universities to
establish international cooperation. The University of Vienna, the ETH Zurich and Latin American universities
are some of the international educational institutions that have worked with Colombians in the field of
architecture. In general, collaborations are at the level of a specific project or site in which Colombian and
foreign architecture students work together for a limited period. Long-term collaborations in architecture
between universities are less common.
Architecture offices
Although there are some internationally recognized young architectural offices, in general architectural offices
in Colombia are small- and medium-sized companies. Large urban developers and construction companies
working in large housing projects have their own architectural teams, which limits the assignments for
architectural offices.
5.3 POTENTIAL CLIENTS ARCHITECTURE

Private sector
Project, area and developing companies
A lot of the architectural work done in the country is for private parties. Due to its variety and diversity it is
difficult to grasp all the array of potential private clients. However, there are identifiable company groups that
are continuously working with architectural design. The largest groups are project developers, area developers
and/or construction companies which in Colombia in general are the same. These types of companies deal in
Colombia with the whole array of the process of an urban project. They find the site location, design and plan
the project, organize the building permits, construct and sell the projects. Though some of these companies
have a broad portfolio (offices, shopping centres, hotels) a large extent of the portfolio of these companies
consists of housing from which a high percentage is social housing. These companies have their own
architecture teams and especially in housing projects where the economical profit is limited, they often repeat
known models.
For the mission, some of these companies that have worked with international partners were interviewed.
Their experience with foreign firms is diverse. However, some lessons can be withdrawn. Their motivation to
work with foreign firms is the interest to make an iconic project for the city. Therefore, the projects in which
foreign firms have been and are involved are not standard housing projects. They are cultural buildings or
multifunctional projects involving housing, offices, commerce, etc. In all the cases, the selection of the
32
international firm by the developer company was done through a closed invitation to a selected group of
architecture offices.
Cajas de compensación
Due to the task to administrate the social benefits of employees, the Cajas are involved in the planning and
construction of built infrastructure for health, education, recreation and at larger extent housing. Sometimes,
these institutions develop housing projects themselves. When this is the case, similarly as the developers and
construction companies, the Cajas de Compensación have their own design teams. Commonly (depending on
the Caja and particularly for smaller ones) the subsidies are given to their members, in order for them to
purchase social housing offered by the large developing companies. Some of these Cajas have important
contributions to the city and quality of its inhabitants like Colsubsidio with the recreation center El Cubo in
Bogotá or with the development of a large neighbourhood such as Ciudadela Colsubidio.
Public sector
Though there are some potential public clients at national scale, a large amount of the assignments for
architecture come from regional and/or local public institutions. Due to the recent elections and new
governments starting at municipal and department level by 1st of January, the future assignments are at this
moment being defined and prioritized inside the public institutions. However, these institutions are not
necessarily the ones that assign the architectural commissions directly. Often they develop the policies and
separate the financial means for the building, but delegate the rest to other organizations that in some cases do
the architectural selection. The new municipal and regional government will probably define priorities that
involve building infrastructure but it is still too soon to know exactly which they will be.
5.4 LEADS FOR BUSINESS AND KNOWLEDGE EXHANGE

Leads for Business:
• Sustainable design for housing and solutions for efficient use of energy and water: halfway 2016, the law
for sustainable construction will become effective in four cities: Bogotá, Medellín, Cali, and Barranquilla
and halfway 2017 in the whole country. This means know-how on sustainable design as well as products
related to sustainable building will be needed in the coming period. The law focuses on building with
energy and water efficiency for new housing projects. The potential clients for these solutions are directly
the urban developers and the Cajas de Compensación which are the main stakeholders developing projects
for (social) housing.
• Schools design: The national government has the goal, stated in the new development plan, to update the
educational infrastructure of the country. Plans are to build 500 new schools and restore more than 1000.
Knowledge on school design and particularly on standardization of design solutions for educational
buildings is needed. Though the first tender was already launched at the end of 2015, the plan for education
infrastructure is for the coming 4 years thus new tenders in this field can be expected. Tenders that were
released included all the phases of a project; from the planning and design up to the permits and
construction. Probably architectural firms will have to be part of larger teams to design these projects.
• Tourism and air travelling: These sectors are strongly growing and they are expected to grow further in
the coming years. During the last ten years the government supported the construction of hotels with tax
benefits and this has led to the construction of many hotels. In 2017 the tax benefit will end and it is
expected that in the coming year hotels will be built to take advantage of the last period of tax benefits. Air
travelling is increasing and the existing airports are outdated and do not have enough capacity. Many cities
have plans to upgrade or renew their airport facilities. The potential clients for hotels are mainly private
and in many cases multinationals. For the updating of the existing airport infrastructure, it is the public
sector that will take the lead either via a public tender or via a tender for a PPP.
Specific leads in the visited cities for Architecture:
Bogotá
• Interviewed parties mentioned that they expect from the new mayor and its government to develop social
infrastructural constructions. For example, recent news announced that the mayor aims to build 30 new
33
schools during his governmental period. In this case, it will probably be the municipal government that will
take care of the tenders or design competitions for the design of these new buildings.
• The CAN project is expected to generate a considerate amount of architectural design work, on one hand,
for the design of the buildings for the new ministries, in which probably the National Real Estate Agency
Virgilio Barco will take the lead, and on the other, through new mixed use building and housing which are
expected to be developed through PPP.
Cali
• Solutions for sustainable design for social housing for the cajas de compensación and private developers.
Cali is one of the cities where more migration by violence moved from the countryside creating an
imminent need for social housing to host these migrant groups.
• The Alliance for urban renewal started developing the first mixed used projects in central areas of Cali. The
first project has already the urban plan, designed by the British company Benoy, but there will probably be
potential commissions in the design of each of the specific buildings.
Barranquilla
• Architectural design will play a role in the projects planned along the new waterfront of the river where
special functions are to be located like convention centres and cultural activities. However, these areas are
to be developed by private clients, thus projects developed with PPP will be welcome.
Medellin
• Though the visit to Medellin was concentrated in the topic of design, some leads for architects were
identified in the theme of floating housing. There is a local company developing solutions for floating
houses (Utopica) which will be happy to find partnerships with Dutch ones and who believes there is a big
market for this.
Leads for knowledge and government exchange:

• New solutions for social housing both at architectural and urban scale: while there is a deficit of housing
and the government has important programs like the ‘free houses program’ (100.000 free houses constructed
during the first phase just finalised and second phase just started), several of the interviewed parties agree
that the built solutions, monofunctional building blocks, are not really suitable for the local conditions. In
some cases these solutions are becoming ghettos. There is a need for new housing typologies in which
housing is combined with other functions and adapted to the local context (such as climate). It is also
necessary that the urban solutions for social housing incorporate thinking about the economical and social
sustainability of the new inhabitants. If not stimulated from the government or non-profit organizations,
the market will not explore in new solutions for social housing. The tradition in the Netherlands in social
housing is broad and well-known internationally which makes an exchange at governmental level
important in order to facilitate future business in this subject.
34
CHAPTER 6. URBANISM IN COLOMBIA
Plaza Botero, Medellin. Source: www.flickr.com/photos/micromacromicro/3449453674
This chapter gives an overview on the current state of the urbanism discipline, the most relevant stakeholders,
possible clients and the leads for business and knowledge exchange.
6.1 URBANISM: URBAN PLANNING AND DESIGN

Colombia is a country of cities. Already 76% of the population lives in them. Through the history of the
country, migration to cities due to violence in the countryside or to economic migration has been a constant.
Urban planning has come in many cases later than this growth, leading to a large surface of unplanned
developments in all large cities. The urban development in Colombia has had this panorama particularly in the
period of the second half of the twentieth century, the period in which cities grew the most. It can be stated
that most of the expansion of the cities in this period was unplanned.
Some plans by foreign urban designers occurred in this period, though only partially realized. In Bogotá, in
1934 the department of Urbanism was established, lead by Austrian urban planner Karl Brunner who
developed some plans for neighbourhoods and boulevards, thought not a complete plan for the city. Brunner
also worked in other Colombian cities like Medellin and Barranquilla. During the 1950s, the ideas of modern
urbanism started entering Colombia brought back by architects that had studied or worked abroad and with
the commission to Le Corbusier of the masterplan for Bogotá, though this was not really brought into practice.
Between the 1950s and the 90s, though there were some isolated exercises of planning, these did not have a
considerable impact on the development of the cities. While this was a moment of rapid growth, around half
of the cities grew unplanned; and the other half grew by independent interventions by developers regulated by
land-use and zoning plans from the planning secretaries of the cities. Thus, an integral spatial plan or future
vision for cities lacked along this period.
The importance of urbanism for the country and Colombian cities grows from the late 90s, due to the law of
24
territorial ordering , which stated that each municipality should have a POT (territorial masterplan). From this
24
Defined by the Law 388 of 1997, see most important policies in stakeholders chapter
35
moment, urbanism has become important in the public sector and the POT is the essential document defining
the urban plans and projects of each Colombian city.
At a national level, particularly with the last development plan, there has also been a call for the need of
human-friendly cities, the importance of cities and urban regions for the future of the country, and the need to
plan the development of these regions. This goes hand in hand with initiatives like the Emergent Sustainable
Cities by the Inter-American Development Bank (IABD) in which urbanism and urban design have an
important role for the sustainable future of medium-sized Latin American cities.
Urbanism as a discipline in Colombia is not as consolidated as architecture. Urbanism is only offered in

education at a master level and there are many different specializations where the design component is not
necessarily involved. There is planning at the territorial, regional level, spatial planning and urban design.
Territorial, regional and spatial planning is in many cases dealt with by experts with backgrounds in economy,
geography or law and the design component is underrepresented. Besides, urban design is often done by
architectural offices.
Strong points
• Within the national policies and the development plan 2014-2019 there is a clear attention from the
national government, also towards departmental and municipal governments, to give importance to an
adequate urban planning.
• Similarly, the national government encourages thinking about urban design to provide cities with quality
public space accessible for everyone. The necessity for cities designed and built for the human scale has
been acknowledged from the national level with the CONPES policy for public space.
• The existence of 6 metropolitan areas and the authorities they have in terms of spatial planning, mobility
and environment make them an important actor to start working on integral regional/territorial spatial
strategies.
Points of attention
• There is not enough attention given to design. While in the Netherlands urbanism is part of the creative
industries, sometimes in Colombia urban development is a matter that concerns more lawyers and
economists rather than designers.
• Even if there are local urban design and planning offices, most of the public entities interviewed agreed
that there is a lack of knowledge and expertise in the subject, particularly related to integral, sustainable
urban development.
• If public actors and experts are thinking about better public spaces and friendly cities, still private
developers and clients need to be stimulated to build cities and to buy houses within this paradigm in mind.
• There is a belief in the need to incorporate issues of sustainability and resilience in the planning of cities.
However, there is not yet the know-how or the policies to stimulate this.
• Urban and regional planning projects involve collaboration between several organizations and stakeholders.
Collaboration between organizations in Colombia is currently not so easy.
Relevant national policies

The LAW 388 from 1997 defined the territorial ordering and established the necessity of a POT for each
municipality. Since then, all municipalities need develop and revise a 10-year spatial plan for both rural and
urban areas.
The CONPES document on the system of cities (2014) defines the national policy to consolidate the system of
cities in Colombia. It was based in the study by DNP and the World Bank that evaluated the status of
Colombian cities in aspects from accessibility, population to economy. This study concluded that there are 18
urban agglomerations in the country formed by 113 municipalities. These agglomerations have functional
relations but not necessarily administrative bands or proper accessibility. The study pointed out the potential
of these agglomerations for the growth of the country, and therefore the necessity to plan their development,
improve connections and economical specialization. This document also allows the national bodies to be
involved in urban planning at local scales to guarantee coherence in the plans.
36
CONPES document defining the national policy for Public Space (2012): this document contains the national
strategy for friendly cities with public space accessible for everyone. It defines the concepts in relation to the
public space and its sustainability, clarifying the articulation of different organizations and partial strategies
involved in the public space, and the possibilities for financing and developing public space projects.
6.2 STAKEHOLDERS FOR THE URBANISM SECTOR

Public Institutions
To a large extent, public institutions give urbanism assignments. These institutions are in charge of defining
the policies priorities, and also of formulating open tenders and hiring consultancy work on these themes.
Public institutions at several scales deal with urbanism issues:
At national scale:
DNP: The national planning department is an entity directly dependent on the president. It defines the
Development Plans containing the guidelines and strategic vision for the development of the country, to be
followed by the ministries, during the four-year presidential period. The DNP deals with the strategic vision
for all the sectors and it defines the guidelines for each sector. Recently, the DNP in collaboration with the
World Bank worked in the mission for the Colombian cities. The results of this mission formed the basis for
25
the CONPES document about the system of cities.
Ministerio de Vivienda, Ciudad y Territorio: This ministry is responsible for the policy, plans and projects related
to urban housing, water and sanitation, territorial and urban planning and development. They are in charge of
the free housing programs as well as of consolidating the system of cities of the country in a sustainable way.
At the scale of the territory, they develop the guidelines for sustainable planning for regions and
municipalities; at the scale of building, they developed the regulations and guidelines for sustainable
construction.
Ministerio de Ambiente y Desarrollo Sostenible: This ministry is responsible for the policies to protect and
maintain the environment and natural resources of the country. They are in change of climate change policies
(in coordination with the ministry of housing) and of prevention and attention of natural disasters. They also
administrate and coordinate the protected areas and the system of natural parks.
Findeter is the nation’s development bank, belonging to the ministry of finance (Hacienda). They provide
funding for projects towards sustainable urban development. They are the partner in Colombia of the project
by the IABD of emerging and sustainable cities, a program that aims to stimulate sustainable development of
26
medium size cities in Latin America by applying the tools developed by the IABD .
Findeter also canalizes cooperation money (French, German, Korean, American, etc)for urban projects (studies
and interventions) toward sustainability and urban quality in Colombian cities. Sometimes, the cooperation
help comes together with companies from the country providing the funding, like British help which defines
that British firms will develop the projects, leading for example to ARUP to get enough commissions
27
(complemented also with private ones) to open a branch in Bogotá . Another example, the Korean
cooperation funds are directed to Smart cities and are bringing Korean companies on those themes to
Colombia.
At regional scale:
Gobernaciones are the regional administrative entities in Colombia at department scale; the gobernaciones have
planning departments where they develop spatial plans for the territory of the department.
Metropolitan areas are agglomerations that are administratively configured. There are six recognized
metropolitan areas. By law, metropolitan areas are the authority in themes of mobility, spatial planning and
25
See explanation about the CONPES documents in the section about relevant policies.
26
See http://www.iadb.org/en/topics/emerging-and-sustainable-cities/emerging-and-sustainable-cities-initiative,6656.html
27
See the news at the site of ‘Invest in Bogota’ about the opening of an office in Colombia by ARUP
http://es.investinbogota.org/noticias/arup-multinacional-britanica-infraestructura-en-Bogota
37
environment. They define the directions to be followed by each of the municipalities and need to guarantee a
coherent planning for the whole region.
In the case of Bogotá, there is not an administrative entity for the region. It is clear that Bogotá and the Sabana
(plateau) form a geographical and functional urban agglomeration. However, there is not an administrative
entity for which they can have common planning goals.
At municipal scale the organizations dealing with the subject of planning are:
The mayor defines the priorities and guidelines of the city through a development plan. The development plan
is the basis on which the mayors are elected. In all Colombian cities, mayors and their teams started their
st
government period on January 1 of 2016. The development plans for the period 2016-2019 are now in process
of revision and approval by the city councils.
Spatial planning in each municipality is dealt by the Secretary of Planning or the department of planning. They
define the regulations for urban development and for the design of the public space. They are the ones that
develop and revise the POTs and define the expansion areas and strategic urban projects for the city. If the
municipality belongs to the Metropolitan Area, the planning of the municipality needs to be coordinated with
the planning of the metropolitan area. Each municipality has a section that designs and executes the
infrastructure and public space. In the case of Bogotá, it is the IDU (Instituto de Desarollo Urbano), in Cali and
Barranquilla, the Secretaría de Infraestructura.
Urban renewal enterprise: Because the topic of urban renewal has gained importance in large cities, each city has
an enterprise for urban renewal. These are private but belong 100% to the city. They can buy land, develop
28
liaisons and attract private investors or PPPs for urban renewal projects . In the subject of urban renewal, Cali
has a particular alliance that is considered pioneer in the country. This is the Alliance for urban renewal, an
association of private developers, the Infrastructure agency, CAMACOL and real state companies which work
together with the local government to develop and build strategic urban renewal projects.
Other organizations dealing with urbanism at municipal level are: in relation to social housing, ISVIMED in
Medellin deals with the provision of social housing, similarly to the Secretary of Housing in Cali while
Metrovivienda in Bogotá is a land bank that has the capacity to buy land and to assign it to projects of social
housing. Themes related with parks and recreation are dealt with by the secretaries or institutes of recreation
and sport of each city.
Research and education

In urban issues, educational and research institutes are often involved either developing consultancy
themselves or because they are asked by public parties to reflect on policies and projects. For example, the
Universidad national has developed several consultancy projects in urban themes. Similarly, the large
universities like the Javeriana have research institutes, like the Instituto Javierano for housing and urbanism.
They are in charge of debating urban themes by organizing academic events in which public parties are invited
to participate or in collaboration with them.
International organizations
In urban terms there are several international organizations that have a considerable influence in the way
urban planners approach urban challenges in Colombian cities or which contribute financially to urban
studies. The most important ones are the Lincoln institute, UN Habitat, CAF, World Bank, IADB and
cooperation agencies of different countries from which the GTZ, USAID, JICA, British andKorean funds are
the most active.
Urban design and planning offices

The territorial law of 1997 (see important national policies) gave boost to urban planning and design offices
due to the fact that, in a short period, a lot of studies and advisory work was needed by each medium and large
municipality in order to develop their POTs. Since then, offices providing consultancy, advice and design in
28
ERU in Bogotá, EMRU in Cali, EDUBAR in Barranquilla, EDU in Medellín (not only dealing with urban renewal in Medellin but
also with urban development).
38
urban themes have emerged. Most of the commissions for these offices come from the public sector and are
therefore highly dependent on actual policies, governmental periods and on the governors in power.
Associations
Some of the associations mentioned in the architecture part like CAMACOL and the CCCS are also dealing
with urbanism issues though in much less extent. ACIUR (Colombian association of urban and regional
research) is an organization related to academic research in urbanism. It forms a scientific community in urban
and territorial studies.
6.3 POTENTIAL CLIENTS URBANISM

The potential clients for urbanism are in general the same as for architecture (section 5.3).
Private sector
Project, area and developing companies
Private parties, such as project developers, area developers and/or construction companies, are main
contractors for urban design. They deal with the whole project; search for a location, concept, design and plan
the project, organize the building permits, construct and sell the projects. Social housing or neighbourhoods
are an important part of their portfolio, but some specialize in other sectors such as tourism, shopping malls,
business districts, etc. Although many project developers have their own design team, they are interested in
working with foreigners to create iconic projects.
Cajas de compensación
Due to the task to administrate the social benefits of employees, the Cajas are involved in the planning and
construction of built infrastructure for health, education, recreation and at larger extent housing. Some of
these Cajas have important contributions to the city and quality of its inhabitants like Colsubsidio with the
recreation center El Cubo in Bogotá or with the development of a large neighbourhood such as Ciudadela
Colsubidio. In this case, besides providing a certain amount of dwellings, the Caja aims to add quality to the
city itself and provides a friendly environment for its inhabitants. Nowadays, Colsubidio develops Ciudadela
Maipore in Soacha, in which they are innovating with sustainable solutions for the water of the
neighbourhood.
Public sector
Colombia is highly decentralized and most of the assignments for urbanism come from regional and/or local
public institutions. Due to the recent elections and new governments starting at municipal and department
level by 1st of January, the future assignments are at this moment being defined and prioritized inside the
public institutions. However, these public institutions are not necessarily the ones that assign the urban
commissions directly. Often they develop the policies and separate the financial means for the building, but
delegate the rest to other organizations, which in some cases do the urbanism selection. The new municipal
and regional government will probably define priorities that involve building infrastructure but it is still too
soon to know exactly which they will be.
6.4 LEADS FOR BUSINESS AND KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE

Leads for Business:
• Urban renewal and Transit Oriented Development (TOD): in all the large Colombian cities, the theme of
urban renewal is acknowledged as a need and mentioned in the master plans for the city. The urban
renewal locations in the cities will be defined in relation to the accessibility by public transport which
makes the subject of TOD topical. Most cities have a department dealing with urban renewal. However, so
far there are not many realized examples of urban renewal in the country. Know-how and good practices of
urban renewal in central areas are needed both in the form of examples of how such a complex process of
urban renewal can be realized involving the different stakeholders, as well as integrated urban design.
Possible clients for urban renewal projects are the urban renewal enterprises in each city.
• Public space design: related to the previous theme, there is a need for design standards for public space,
particularly related to sidewalk design and requirements for accessibility for disabled citizens. In cities
implementing BRTs (Bus rapid systems), the BRT company designs and builds all the public space along the
39
bus lines. These companies are in need of design solutions and standards which makes them interesting
stakeholders in this subject. In the rest of the city, the planning secretary can be the potential client. This
topic goes hand in hand with the mentioned possibilities for the design sector, since in many cases,
Industrial Designers are also involved in the development of these projects.
• Sustainability at urban design/planning scale: Colombia is trying to improve the policy towards
sustainability in cities, however many interviewed parties agree that so far the policies and actions are only
directed towards sustainability at the building scale. There is a need for knowledge and examples of what
sustainability can mean at the urban scale. The clients in these subjects will probably be public entities both
at municipal level as well as national level since the ministry of housing and the DNP look for pilots and
showcases that can guide municipalities towards integrating sustainable solutions locally. Thought this
could be done through Dutch private advisory/urban planning offices, it would probably need first a
government-to-government exchange (see next subsection).
• Territorial, integral regional planning: The ministry of housing is interested in developing territorial,
integral spatial visions for Colombian urban agglomerations. They wish to stimulate departments
(equivalent to Dutch provinces) to develop spatial master plans for their territories, something inexistent at
the moment. There is a need for regional integral planning which considers both spatial as well as
environmental aspects dealing also with social and economical themes. These kinds of projects, because of
the regional scale, multi-actor and emphasis in process rather than on result, are a Dutch speciality.
Similarly to the previous lead, ideally territorial planning could be done by an urban planning office, but it
might first come in the form of a G to G.
Specific leads in the visited cities for Urbanism:
Bogotá
• In Bogotá it is expected that the new administration will stimulate designs and works in the public space
and in parks. Large projects will probably be along the Bogotá river where the mayor wants to develop the
river-city, along smaller rivers and the park of the east mountains
• Urban design and urban renewal in relation to public transport will be important particularly with the new
lines of the bus system "Transmilenio" and with the metro. There will be necessary to design all the public
space along the planned lines and the urban renewal projects in relation to the new metro and bus stations,
expertise in TOD will be important.
Cali
• Projects of urban renewal in central areas developed by the Alliance will need urban designers for the new
blocks as well as the design of public space. In these projects, possible clients will be the different
developing companies that are part of the alliance.
• Although it is not the subject of this mission, it is related to urban development. The public servants
interviewed in Cali were very enthusiastic about the Dutch know-how in urban cycling. They see it as a
potential for collaboration because, differently from other urban development subjects, this one is very
concrete, shorter in time and in budget.
Barranquilla
• Public space design and guidelines for sidewalks for accessibility for disabled people is needed for the
whole city, interested parties could be the municipality (planning secretary or public space) or the
Transmetro which is the company that administrates the bus system and which takes care of the public
space along the bus lines.
• Solutions for urbanism related to water management and delta urbanism: at the level of the city,
Barranquilla plans to urbanize with mixed uses and recreation/leisure the old port areas along the
waterfront and to bring the city back to the river. In this topic, the Dutch have long expertise in old
industrial areas in port cities like Amsterdam and Rotterdam as well as the know-how of water
management. At the metropolitan level, Barranquilla is located in the delta of the Magdalena River and the
metropolitan area of Barranquilla is planning a development in more accordance with the water structure.
40
Leads for knowledge and government exchange:

• Urban design based on human scale, a new paradigm of city: Because of cultural reasons and linked to a
feeling of insecurity, the common urban pattern of housing neighbourhoods in Colombia both for low and
high incomes take the form of gated communities. Many practitioners and developing companies would
like to build in a more pedestrian-friendly way. However, they are afraid that these projects won't sell and
they lack public policies that support a different model of city. There is a need for urban design that creates
neighbourhoods at a more human scale, knowledge about the benefits of this model and support to the
government to develop policies stimulating this model.
• Sustainability at urban design/planning scale and territorial, integral regional planning were subjects
mentioned at the business level but that require a previous government exchange in the subject. The
Colombia national and regional governmental entities, which are the possible clients for consultancy in
these subjects, need first to be presented with the Dutch experience in these fields.
41
CHAPTER 7. CHALLENGES AND STRATEGY
Although the desk research and interviews led to the identification of several leads, this doesn't mean that the
Colombians are waiting for the Dutch to take action. A successful strategy needs to fit the specific approach
and way of working of the sector for which it is developed, in this case, the design and creative sector. This
section defines the challenges and a strategy to stimulate business and knowledge exchange.
7.1 CHALLENGES
Magical realism unknown
In general Colombia is not the country that architects, urban planners and designers mention if you ask where
they would like to work, nearby European countries are favourite or countries such as China, India and Brazil.
Colombia still needs to cope with the image of drugs, guerrilla and safety and it will take a lot of effort to
change this.
Finances and legislation

Fees of European offices are not comparable to local ones. The proportion of what foreign architects or
designer ask as fee for the draft design is much larger than what a local architect and what the SCA defines for
Colombia. Therefore, companies hiring foreign architects need a larger budget to get to the same level of detail
than a Colombian architectural office would deliver. Furthermore, assignments are generally paid in
Colombian pesos (COP) and the COP devaluated the last years, meaning that hiring foreigners in Euros
became much more expensive or foreigners paid in COP received less in Euros.
Companies that are going to be hired by a public institution need to get an insurance policy (póliza) for that
specific contract. Due to the size of design, architecture and urbanism offices, sometimes they do not qualify
for the required insurance by the insurance company.
The Netherlands and Colombia are in the process of making agreements about taxes. Up till now these
agreements aren't made and a local company hiring a foreign company will have to pay around 33% of taxes
plus the VAT. This can be avoided, if the contracted work is developed totally abroad.
Larger offices work abroad

29
The sector has a high percentage of self employed, small and medium sized companies . The average size is
smaller than 2 instead of 8 people per company in other sectors. This is because of the high percentage (43%
i.c.t. 12%) of self-employed individuals. These self-employed and smaller firms have less money to invest in
trade missions or international business development. BNO experienced that it takes a lot of effort to do
business in upcoming countries before return on investment (ROI) is made and most offices aren't able or
willing to do so. Especially graphic design firms are small and often not able to work abroad. According to
BNO´s business performance monitor, an average of 8% to 10% of designers work abroad, though this
percentage gets up to 15% to 20% at the larger design companies (35+ employees)30. The BNA Benchmark 201531
states that larger architectural firms are doing fine abroad. Of the total amount of work, 3,2% is generated
abroad, while in larger firms such as OMA, BenthemCrouwel or KCAP this amount is in general 32% with
some firms peaking up to 80%. Size is however not representative, even relatively small offices such as BKVV
and Next architects have mega projects abroad. From these projects, a high percentage is done in Europe and
44% of the projects are outside Europe.
Business development and entering a new market

Most offices lack a strong international business development in which a plan is made to work in a specific
country or market. According to BNO, many designers that work abroad are invited by their Dutch client to do
29
Beeld op sectoren 2015, jaarbericht sectoren, Ministerie van Economische zaken, 2015
30
EVD market-scan 70MVK11, Creative industries in India, 2008
31
http://www.dearchitect.nl/nieuws/2015/11/09/bna-benchmark-onderzoek-rendement-neemt-toe.html
42
a project abroad. Many architecture and urban design offices that work abroad are asked to join a closed tender
because of their specific signature or portfolio, or these offices join tenders and competitions to enter a
market.
In Colombia most of the public assignments are tendered. The time of opening is normally limited and often
no longer than 2 weeks, which is a too short period for foreign firms. Besides, the amount of paper work
necessary to apply for a tender is extreme: work certificates and financial statements which all need to be
translated and have proper certifications.
Collaboration is necessary
Most of the firms that successfully work abroad collaborate with a local company32 and this collaboration is
not easy. In most public tenders for architecture and urban planning in Colombia it is necessary to team up
with a local registered architect. Many local architects and associations aren't willing to collaborate and it is
hard to find the organization with the right skills and knowledge. According to the BNO several attempts have
been undertaken in India and South Africa for collaboration. The idea was that Dutch designers make a
concept and local designers do the final design and implementation. This has not led normally to success,
because designers like to be involved from the first concept up to the final design and construction to guard
the quality; this is often not asked and too expensive. Probably this collaboration is also not easy between
Colombia and the Netherlands.
Many interviewees mentioned that Colombians are oftentimes difficult to work with because they are not
used to collaboration. Nevertheless, they also mentioned that this seems to be rapidly improving. In general,
interviewees in both public and private institutions were excited about the idea of possible collaborations with
their Dutch counterparts, and they expressed it in many ways that can be summarized as follows:
• Dutch design, architecture and urbanism have a good reputation in Colombia.

• Public organizations see the expertise of the Dutch in the design field as an opportunity to grow the sector
in the country.
• Private companies consider their knowledge of the Colombian context as an opportunity for the Dutch
sector to collaborate with them.
• The sector in Colombia was able to identify specific Dutch capabilities that could be of interest for
Colombian organizations (these are discussed further in this report in the chapter about the leads).
• Some local companies are at a stage in which they start considering strategies to grow. Within these
strategies, internationalization (thus cooperating with international partners) plays an important role.
Hablas Inglés? Language could be a big barrier for collaboration since most Colombians don't speak English.
The Spanish language is essential for working in Colombia. No data is available about the percentage of Dutch
speaking Spanish, but it seems to be limited. Large firms could attract Spanish-speaking staff, but the small- and
medium-sized creative firms don't have the budget to do so. Although English is the official language in San
Andres, Providencia and Santa Catalina Islands, most Colombians aren't able to have a business conversation in
English, and even university students don't speak sufficient English33.
Unlike the Creative Industries in The Netherlands, in Colombia the creative sector is still maturing (just out of
its infancy). Because of this, there are neither many organizations that support and promote good design
practices, nor are there relevant governmental policies that support the sector´s development. This is explicitly
mentioned in several interviews, and it is seen as a threshold for the development of design in Colombia, as
well as for the process of setting up cross-border partnerships.
32
Kansen op de Duitse Markt, Mythen en Mogelijkheden voor Nederlands design, mode en architectuur in Duitsland.
BNO, september 2011
33
http://www.colombia-politics.com/colombias-problem-with-english/
43
The place to be
In 2013 a trade mission to Brazil34 was organized in which many creative companies participated. In this
strategic mission, creative companies and knowledge institution joined forces. This seemed to work out fine
because many creatives entered the market and built up a network through universities. In the same document,
it is stated that a trade fair is rarely the right stage for creative companies to present themselves. Conferences,
meetings and biennales are possibly more suitable than a more classical trade fair. Probably this kind of
collaborations and joining biennales would also be effective in Colombia.
Ease of doing business and culture

Most people mention the bureaucracy as an obstacle for doing business. Although people appreciate working
with individual Colombians because they experience a positive vibe and a strong belief in the future, working
with organizations takes a lot of effort because decision processes aren't fast and easy, and communication by
email is not effective. These decision processes also come up in the Geert Hofstede index that compares the
culture of countries. In his model countries are compared at 6 points and the cultural differences are striking
between the Netherlands and Colombia.
Dutch designers are strong in processes and integrated solutions. This approach may be workable due to the
limited power distance and a long-term orientation in the Netherlands. For Colombia however, this distance is
higher and the long-term orientation lower. Foreigners often underestimate the time involved in design
processes and the costs that are involved in hiring Dutch designers. Many designers offer a process with a
result (e.g. a product) at the end, while foreigners are more interested in a concrete product. In Colombia it is
very important to show quantitative results. Design seems to be intangible for many organizations.
Nevertheless, Dutch firms have learnt to connect their seemingly abstract work with more concrete results (e.g.
improving financial outcomes). This could be an important step to show the relevance of design. For architects
and urbanists this could mean showing impressions to directly grab the attention of possible clients.
Experimental design (a characteristic of the Dutch creative sector) may be more suitable in countries in which
uncertainty is accepted. Colombia however, is a country with a high rate of uncertainty avoidance. The
Netherlands has a strong focus on conceptual thinking, experiments and aesthetics but these aspects are often
less important abroad where functionality takes the lead. "Out of the box thinking" and experiments are often
appreciated in the design and cultural sector (in general), but other sectors do not fall for these approaches.
Individualism is high in the Netherlands and very low in Colombia. This is noticeable because personal
relationships are very important for doing business in the later. Some organizations mentioned that Dutch
people aren't the best in keeping the contacts warm, which seems to be necessary to keep the (business)
relationships on going.
35
Comparison in the culture of countries; Colombia vs. The Netherlands, Geert Hofstede cultural index .
34
Topsector Creatieve Industrie een tussenbalans 2011-2013, Design Innovation Group, mei 2013
35
Data from www.geert-hofstede.com
44
Knowledge exchange
Colombian universities showed a great interest in working together or in exchange knowledge with Dutch
universities. Most collaboration between universities are at university level, but collaboration seem to works
better at a faculty level than a university level because professors and researchers have an interest in a certain
theme and select partners that have the same interest to collaborate in research or exchange programs. A
representative example is the collaboration between EAFIT (Faculty of Product Design Engineering) in
Colombia, and Industrial Engineering in Delft, which is a collaboration at a Faculty level and has been running
successfully for more than 5 years.
Summing up the above points of attention

• Colombia is not well-known or often mentioned by designers and architects that would like to work
abroad.
• The Colombian culture differs from the Dutch one; meaning:
o Focus on concrete short-term products instead of more undefined long-term processes;
o Show proven and tested products, since Colombians are less open for experiments;
o Keep the contacts warm because business is based on relationships;
o Speak and write Spanish because English proficiency in Colombia is limited; and
o Communicate with the right means, for example people respond better on Whatsapp than
emails.
• Most creative offices are small and lack the possibility to invest in internationalization. Larger firms in the
field of industrial design, urban design and architecture seem the most promising ones to do business in
Colombia. These are the companies that already work abroad and have the expertise and investment power
to enter the Colombia market.
• Colombians aren't used to collaborate; on one side they are hesitating to do so, on the other side they are
very interested. Good collaboration is essential for Dutch offices to enter a new market successful.
• Working in Colombia needs a lot of preparation:
o Your administrative duties need to be organized such as legislation, taxes and insurances;
o A local representative, for example a registered architect, as an "apoderado" (see §3.5) is
essential.
• Trade fairs aren't the right place to do business. Specific events, aimed at the sectors, are the appropriated
place to present, find a network or a local partner.
• Most collaboration between universities are at the level of the whole university. Knowledge exchange
works the best between faculties or (governmental) departments on topics that have the interest of both
institutes.
7.2 STRATEGY
With the challenges in mind, a strategy is developed for doing business in Colombia, set up collaborations and
exchange knowledge. This strategy is devised to promote the whole sector. However, each individual, creative
office or university interested in doing business in Colombia must make its own strategy and business plan.
The Chambers of Commerce offer a lot of information about landing in the country, and both countries have
an infrastructure to help export to, or invest in Colombia, such as The Netherlands Enterprise Agency (RVO),
ProColombia; and the promotion companies of each city such as ProBarranquilla or Invest in Bogotá; the
embassies, Holland House, special platforms for landing of foreign companies like RutaN in Medellin with a
special starter zone for creative companies, etc.
Many actions could be undertaken to stimulate the creative business industry, collaboration opportunities and
knowledge exchanges, but some are easier or more difficult than others. To be viable, the strategy starts with
the description of steps and actions that are easier to perform (i.e. uncomplicated and more short-term
oriented). These steps mainly focus on making connections between both countries. The second set of actions
takes more effort and is concerned with learning and working together. The last steps are more relevant when
thinking of a long-term (business) relationship with Colombia.
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Easy steps: Connect

• Colombia and its opportunities need to be promoted inside the Dutch Creative sector.
• Start with culture and end with business. Group or individual participating during cultural events and/or
fairs is a good chance to meet potential clients and design agencies for collaboration.
• Spread the word. Many designers that work abroad are asked by their current clients. Let your clients know
that you are interested in working abroad and tell them about the opportunities in Colombia.
More difficult steps: Learn and work together

• Exchanges between faculties in which researchers and students can participate could also favour business
relations. If designers could join these exchanges, then it could open their market because Colombian
universities might be a good starting point for doing business with the industry.
• Dutch offices need a local partner to do projects. It is not easy to find the right partner and Colombian
hesitate to collaborate. Dutch offices and Colombians need to collaborate and experience the mutual
expertises and approaches for a successful partnership and business model.
• Some topics aren't mature enough for doing business. Government-to-Government collaborations could
help to overcome this gap. If designers and researchers are involved throughout the whole process it could
position them inside the network of relevant stakeholders.
• ‘Seeing is believing’; in architecture and urbanism the Netherlands has impressive projects to visit and if
Colombian influentials would come to the Netherlands they could experience the results of Dutch design.
• Dutch offices need to build up evidence and a portfolio in Colombia showing the results of an integrated
approach.
• Crossovers with other Dutch exporters to Colombia could demonstrate the role of design and integrated
solutions. These crossovers could be set-up by using existing networks of, for instance, the Holland House,
the PUM program and the Water network. The Netherlands focuses at Water, Agro, Waste and Biomass;
make crossovers between the sectors and let designers join discussions, participate in pilot projects and
events.
• The model of PPP starts growing in importance to develop infrastructure and urban projects in Colombia.
In this case, it is expected that the architectural or urban designer does not come alone. Designers should
make coalitions with other sectors and with possible investing parties to be able to join the tenders for PPP.
Harder: Long term presence

• Dutch creatives need to know what happens in Colombia and Colombians need to know how to get in
contact with Dutch creatives. Information about tenders, work and activities in both countries should be
shared.
• Iconic project could really get the attention of the Dutch, the Colombians and the World. For example, the
Netherlands supported the "Rebuild by Design" competition in New York that dealt with the challenges to
make water (safety) a part of the urban planning and design process. The selected Dutch teams could
demonstrate their experiences and apply their knowledge in the follow up projects. This competition gave
the opportunity to demonstrate the Dutch skills and got worldwide attention. Setting up an iconic project
could help Dutch designers to enter the Colombian market.
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APPENDICES
1. Interviews the Netherlands and Colombia
2. Relevant Stakeholders
APPENDIX1. INTERVIEWS IN THE NETHERLANDS AND COLOMBIA
The Netherlands
Organization Person Function
BNO Rita van Hattum secretary board
BNO / PUM Peter Kersten former director
BNA international Mathias Lehner manager BNA International
BNSP Bastiaan Prickartz projects and communication
West8 (by phone) Edzo Bindels partner
Aut-ark BV (by phone) Pieter Kromwijk CEO
Topsector Creatieve Industrie Jann de Waal internationalization
TU Delft/Topsector Creatieve Industrie Paul Hekkert science
Colombia
Organization Person Function

Bogotá
Ministerio de vivienda, ciudad y Alonso Cárdenas Director Espacio Urbano y Territorial
territorio Sarah Arboleda Asesora Subdirección de Políticas de
Desarrollo Urbano y Territorial
Carolina Fernández Asesora Subdirección de Políticas de
Desarrollo Urbano y Territorial
They discussed with us the focus areas for the coming year in the areas of urban and territorial planning. In this
focus areas they see possibilities for collaboration with Dutch parties:
1. Intelligent territories and regional planning: In which they aim to develop visions for the spatial ordering of
urban corridors. They will start with a pilot for a vision for the river territories (urban agglomeration along the
Magdalena river). This pilot should generate a methodology that can support planning on the urban
agglomerations of the country. They also want, as national government, to stimulate departments (regional
administrative entity equivalent to Dutch provinces) to produce spatial plans which are inexistent at the
moment.
2. NAMA habitat: The ministry got support of USAID to develop a NAMA at neighbourhood level. In this
project (in its initial period now) they aim to develop measures for emission reduction at neighbourhood level.
This pilot will help them develop criteria which they can apply in planning instruments at territorial level as well
as asking municipalities to involucrate them in the revision of the POTs (Territorial Ordering plan).
3. Halfway 2016 de law for sustainable construction already approved will start to rule in four cities: Bogotá,
Medellín, Cali, and Barranquilla and halfway 2017 in the whole country. This means know how in sustainable
building will be needed in the coming period.
The ministry also is responsible for large housing projects. In the second phase of the free housing program
starting now, they want to start involving issues of sustainability as well making sure that the new areas are
integrated within the municipal POT to make sure that they are provided with services and public transport. In
the free housing program as well as social housing they see a need on know how about materials and
technologies to build sustainable.
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Findeter Maria del Rosario Hidalgo Directora Ciudades Sostenibles

Competitivas y Ciudades
Emblemáticas
Diana Galarza Asesora temas de transporte y
movilidad
Findeter is the development bank, working directly with regional and local governments to finance sustainable
projects. Within the type of projects they finance there are architectural, urban design and planning projects. In
urban design and planning, the partnership they have with the IABD in their program for sustainable and
competitive cities is very interesting. They have two main forms to work, depending on if international
cooperation financing is involved or not. When international funding is involved the contracts are assigned
according to the requirements of the financing party. For example, Korean and UK cooperation agencies require
that companies from their own country are hired for the projects financed with their money. If there is not
international financing, there is an open tender for projects costing more than 250.000 dollars.
They finance the studies for urban project such as the masterplan for the historical centre of Barranquilla, the
market area of Cartagena, ecoparks in Valledupar, Pasto and Bucaramanga, the market area on Monteria. The
projects are punctual that will have a larger impact in an area of the city and in the spatial an quality of life of the
neighbours. They agree that there needs to be a change in paradigm both in governments as well as in private
companies but specially in inhabitants about the model of city we want for the future. The model of auto
dependence, gated community and shopping mall is very deeply rooted in the Colombian culture.
FIDETER works with foreign urbanism offices, particularly when it is asked by the funding party. They also
work with offices that are asked or requested by the local parties. This was the case of Gehl architects (DK)
whom could not be hired at the end because they could not get the necessary insurance policy for the contract.
Finally, FINDETER would also be interested in G-to-G cooperation in the themes of sustainable urban
development and the role of the government to stimulate this.
Consejo Colombiano de Pilar Medina Advocacy Director

Construcción Sostenible
The council is an association with members all interested on stimulate sustainable construction in Colombia.
They are interested to promote adaptation of best practices. The new law of sustainable construction by the
ministry of housing will be an interesting tool that will definitely stimulate sustainable construction.
The current Development plan, approved for the current presidential period (2014-2018) contains elements of
sustainability. It contains the Colombian Strategy for Low Carbon Developments, that has policies for growth
with low carbon; it also has policies for mitigation, from spatial planning to habitability and policies for
adaptation with management of risk. However, they see a deficiency in sustainability at urban scale.
Possibilities for collaboration: The CCCS organizes yearly congress on sustainable construction: Construverde.
th
This year it will take place on 18 may. They have had previously contact with the embassy because they were
interested to invite a Dutch speaker, but conversations with the speaker were too slow and eventually they did
not bring the speaker to their congress. They also organize missions for companies in which they might e
interested to have contact with the Netherlands. The can also be a medium to spread information between their
members.
Fondo Adaptación Frank Paipilla Subgerente de Proyectos
The Adaptation Fund was created to rebuild infrastructure after the damages by the heavy rainy seasons of 2010
2011 in the country. Though, most of the areas were already in problem before the rain emergency. There are 4
macro-projects: 1. Mojana, 2. Canal del Dique, 3. Gramalote (relocation of a whole village), and 4. Jarillón de Cali
(mitigation from risk for flooding and relocation of some of the population living in the dike).
For the moment there are not more projects in the planning, it is expected that when this macro projects are
finished the Fund will take the subject of adaptation to other areas and projects. Tough Gramalote is already too
far to have involvement in the project from architectural or urbanism point of view, the theme of re-location
might be the theme of the future. There is the need for relocation projects in vulnerable areas but the
political/economical will not yet.
There is already an MoU signed between the Fund and the Embassy of the Netherlands in water resources.
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QBO Raquel Barake Maldonado Gerente de mercadeo

Rafael Rincón Juri Director de desarrollo
QBO are urban developers. They opt to have a small portfolio of projects but with large impact. Atrio, the large
project designed by Richard Rogers’s office follows their ambition to contribute to the renovation of the centre
of Bogota. In the project, public space has a very important role. That is one of the reason they are very satisfied
with the work with Rogers because of their attention to the design of the public space. The goal with Atrio and
the reason they selected an internationally known architecture office is that they wanted to create an icon for
Bogota’s centre and to be a pioneer project. They wanted collaboration between the international partner and a
local one in all the aspects. Other companies working at the project are AECOM and Gilipsis for the landscape.
The company really believes in the reborn of the centre, therefore they also work in the City U project for
student residences where they work with an US operator. They have plans for similar projects (student residence)
in other cities.
El equipo de Mazzanti Carlos Medellin Associate Manager on Research and

Conceptual Design
They are interested in have international collaborations as part of their office strategy. They are staring
collaborations at national level with urbanism offices as well as with international offices. They want to start
taking part in national and international tenders in which they can provide the architectural design while other
companies provide the urban studies, technical, etc.
Secretaría de Planeación Bogotá Camila Neira Dirección de renovación y patrimonio

urbano
With the new administrative of the city, priorities are being defined about the projects for the current major’s
period. There will be projects along specific corridors in relation to public transport and in some central
neighbourhoods and old industry areas. These areas will also need an environmental plan because of the quality
and pollution in the ground.
There might be potential projects for design of the image of the metro and culture of the metro, campaigns. In
relation to the metro, there is also potential for urban design and planning of the profile of the corridor and
developments around stations.
The large projects they will be working on are: the border of Bogotá against the river which involves urban
design, public space and landscape design, and the park of the Cerros Orientales (East mountain chain).
They are aiming at large impact projects in the periphery in renewal areas. Here it is important, besides urban
design, the participative process with communities, something in which Dutch knowledge could be an added
value. Finally, the historical centres need proper legislation, use the tourism, craftsmanship as a motor for
development.
Construcciones Planificadas Edgar Solano Gerente de diseño
This developer/construction company also has a selected portfolio. Similarly to other companies of this type,
they take care of the acquisition of the plots, design, construction and selling of the projects. One of their recent
emblematic projects is the “Ciudadela Sarmiento”, a large business complex in a strategic location between the
airport and the centre in Bogota. In many of their projects they have worked with well-known foreign architects
always doing a closed invitation to a selected group of offices. Their experience working with foreign companies
is that the price is much higher in relation with the work, level of detailing and amount of plans they receive if
compared with a local firm. In Colombia, the SCA defines that 15% of the total cost of design goes to the stage of
preliminary design while with foreign firms it is almost double this percentage. They also noticed that there is a
lot of work needed after the reception of the plans from the foreign architect in order to produce plans that are
workable in the local context. About the type of projects in the future, hotels will only be in boom until 2017
when taxes benefits finish, offices are in overload. There is also overload of expensive housing and development
of new shopping malls is affected by dollar prices. They think with the new elected major in Bogota, there will be
a lot of construction in varied sectors particularly in infrastructure and public buildings.
Revista Proyecto Diseño Iván Cortés Director general
Revista Proyecto Diseño is the Main Design publication in Colombia since 1995. Additionally, they organize the
‘Lápiz de Acero’ ceremony in which prizes are given in various categories to promote best practices in
Colombian Design. As a design publication, they have closely followed the development of the discipline
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throughout the years. They mention that around 1995 their task was to ‘teach’ about design. 20 years later, they
believe people are more aware of the importance of design even though this is not so apparent in the industry.
They mention that it is very difficult to cluster designers in Colombia since both graphic and industrial designers
are a smaller part in the graphic and industrial industries, respectively. They mention that actual design studios
are almost non-existent.
They believe Colombian designers have a good academic background, but the dissemination of their capabilities,
and of design relevance in particular is very poor. They see potential for collaboration in niche sectors such as
public infrastructure (e.g. way-finding, trash management), and government-to-government education and
training to create a ‘design culture’.
Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá Marcela Corredor Martinez Directora Gestión de Entorno

Competitivo
Plinio Alejandro Bernal Director de Gestión Urbana y

Ramirez Movilidad
Juan Carlos Jiménez Investment promotion manager at

Invest in Bogotá
Stephanie García Investment officer at Invest in Bogotá
Ingrid Salamanca Romero Coordinadora Proyectos de Innovación
The chamber of commerce of Bogota sees the creative industries as one of the pillars of development for the city.
In their programme: Bogotá Ciudad Innovadora 2025 (Bogota 2025, innovative city) they are conceiving projects
around the Creative Industries that could be seen as potential opportunities for Dutch companies (e.g. the
development of a Creative Hub in the city). However, they acknowledge the current weakness of the market in
the country, and the difficulty to convince investors that ‘design is the way’ (i.e. design is difficult to sell). Invest
in Bogota, belonging half to the CCB and half to the city is responsible for attracting investors to the city.
Architectural design and creative industries is one of the 5 areas of attention to attract investment. The also have
an officer in charge of the projects for the city and attracting international funds for those projects.
AT the same time, the CCB has a team dealing with urban projects in Bogota, accompanying the public policies.
They work together with the city in themes of mobility, particularly recently in cycling and TOD. The people of
They see possibilities in the development at the CAN where many of the planned buildings will be developed
though PPP. Also through PPP they see possibilities to renew the built infrastructure of the city and to develop
urban renewal projects, and ambition of the city that still needs to be showing the first concrete examples.
Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá Julián Robledo Ruiz Director Cluster de Industrias

Creativas y de Contenido
Angela Maria Reyes Cluster Industrias creativas y gráficas
Cámara de Comercio de Bogotá
Gustavo Pulecio Director Cluster de Comunicación
Gráfica
The clusters of the Creative Industries and Graphic Communication mainly support companies related to these
fields in order to create a more competitive environment. They see potential for collaboration in specific areas
such as packaging and labelling design and production. They have a need for more advanced techniques in
design, but are afraid that the current devaluation of the local currency could stop Colombian companies from
partnering with Dutch organizations.
RAD (Red Académica de Diseño) Mercedes Rodríguez Presidente

Andrés Páez Director Administrativo
RAD is the biggest association of design programmes in Colombia. The function of RAD is to mainly create
what they call a ‘design culture’ in the country by working together with all the academic programmes in
design (i.e. Industrial, graphic, fashion, etc.). They see the field in Colombia as a young one, but mature
enough to start collaborations with international partners.
They see great potential in promoting knowledge exchange between universities, and possibly between
private organizations. Besides, they believe Dutch institutions could bring knowledge that is not yet well
developed in Colombia (e.g. service design, design thinking). They would like to see more support from the
government to the industry, as well as to the design discipline itself. For them, the lack of a ‘design culture’
50
is a relevant issue to be considered if Dutch companies want to penetrate the market.
Comisión Profesional Daniela Villazon Coordinadora

Colombiana de Diseño Industrial
This public institution, part of the Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Tourism; controls, monitors and
promotes the discipline of Industrial Design in the country, which is legally recognized as a profession since 1994
(ley 157 de 1994). They recognize that even though the discipline of Industrial Design has been present in the
country for over 30 years, the governmental support is limited. Besides, they mention that budget-wise, this
commission is not big enough to give solid support to the Industry. They mention the need for a political leader
that promotes design as an economic strength.
They see considerable potential in government-to-government collaboration to organize the sector in Colombia
the way it is organized in The Netherlands. Besides, they see favourable opportunities for Dutch companies to
participate in national design events such as Medellin Design Week and Bogota Design Festival. With this,
Dutch Design companies could start to showcase their strengths and capabilities.
Andigraf Luis Enrique Diaz Romero Director Investigaciones Económicas
Andigraf is the biggest association of companies in the graphic and printing sectors in Colombia. They mention
that these sectors are mainly divided in four areas: (1) Editorial printing, (2) Advertisement, (3) packaging, and (4)
POP Material (Point-of-Purchase). Of these, they mention that packaging and POP are the most flourishing
sectors in Colombia, and with the greatest potential for collaboration with Dutch companies.
They are concerned about two main issues: First, there are many informal printing companies that do not charge
for design, and second, many companies do not yet understand the value of design. These issues are mentioned
several times during the visit.
Santiago Calva Architect Santiago Calva (by phone) Architect
Santiago is a Dutch/Mexican architect working in Colombia. He represents Droog design in Colombia.

He sees the panorama for 2016 in construction and in general in the economy in Colombia difficult, less growth
in construction, vacant office space. To work as an architect in Colombia, the local market particularly in large
construction/developer companies is very restricted and closed, dominated by few large companies.
For design products, he thinks there is not a large medium class that can be the market for design products. High
incomes have enough to purchase design objects for interior in foreign countries.
He sees opportunities for small offices with few overhead costs and that are willing to work in Colombia for few
profit in order to let themselves known in the country.
There is a deficiency on the local know how in construction. Rogers architects building a high tower in Bogota
could not find the proper contractors for the steel structure and had to work with a Mexican company
increasing costs. Definitely he advices to get a local partner that knows all the bureaucracy processes and paper
work needed to work in Colombia.
Creable Claudia Largacha (by account planning director latam

phone)
Creable is a full-service brand strategy design firm located in Culver City, with branch offices in Bogota. They see
great potential in possible alliances between the Dutch and Colombian creative Industries. As for the Dutch
offer, they are convinced that topics such as Strategic Thinking and Design Processes could benefit the
innovation processes in Colombian companies. Besides, they think that synergic collaborations could harness
Colombian talent in both graphic and industrial design.
They are concerned about cultural differences in the way of working and in the style of designing. Besides, they
mention that most design companies in Colombia are small and not able to afford the rates of Dutch firms.
Because of this, they believe possible collaborations should be directed to the big players in the market (e.g.
Alpina, Imusa).
Solutions group Fernando Gonzales VP Planeacion Estrategica

Largacha (by phone)
Solutions Group designs and manufactures POP material. They have already been involved with Dutch
organizations in previous years. With the Design and Emotion Society they set up the Design and Emotion
Conference in 2015 in Bogota (amongst other stakeholders), and with the TU Delft, Solutions participated in a
51
joint international project named Giant (EAFIT was also involved). Also, they have invited Dutch students to
develop a full master´s project with their company support.
Solutions sees great potential on working in collaboration with Dutch organizations – both knowledge
institutions and private companies. For instance, they would be interested in knowledge exchange in topics such
as design thinking (strength of the Dutch sector). Besides, they claim that these exchanges could help to establish
a more mature design sector in Colombia. They mention the need for government-to-government collaborations
in order to create a ‘Design Culture’ similar to that of the Netherlands.
PhD. Fellow at the Faculty of Javier Ricardo Mejía Former leader of the National Design
Industrial Design Engineering at Sarmiento Programme
TU Delft
Ricardo was a former Consultant on Design and Innovation for the MCI&T in Colombia where he gave
professional advice on the management of SMEs through the National Design Program (NDesP) within the
Vice-Ministry of Business Development. Ricardo helped with making an overview of the current landscape of
design in Colombia, how it is organized, and key stakeholders to interview that could be of relevance for possible
partnerships with the Dutch creative sector. Ricardo makes emphasis on the fact that the Creative Industries in
Colombia are not well organized yet, and that there is a lack of leadership in this topic in Colombia.
Cali
Alianza para la Renovación Oscar Andrés Polanía Asistente dirección
Urbana de Cali Sonia Fabiola Amaya Directora
Montoya
This Alliance is a public-private partnership existing already since 2013 as a public initiative that invited the
private sector to take part on the transformation of Cali and develop urban renewal in a more efficient way. The
Alliance groups companies of the whole value chain of construction. They aim to do urban renewal through
large projects in which the social aspect is taken into account, project should be approached integral and with an
equilibrium between public and private value. They have already defined project from which the first one, San
Pascual is currently in development. They worked with the British firm Benoy but stopped working with them
because of prices. Besides working with foreign firms, their main interest is to leave a legacy in capacity inside
the public institutions. They see possibilities to work with Dutch firms in the topics of public space design,
cycling and design related to water elements very present in the city of Cali.
Empresa Municipal de Nelson Londoño Secretario General

Renovación Urbana EMRU
The EMRU has the role to plan and regulate the urban renewal areas for the city, and to develop the areas
together with private parties, in this case, the Alianza para la Renovación Urbana. Urban renewal potential areas
are along the green corridor of the river, around the historical centre and the Santa Helena market, and related to
the station of the MIO (BRT).
Departamento Administrativo de León Darío Espinosa Director

Planeación Municipal
Cali already Works with Dutch companies in the Project of el Jarillon and in the river Cali project. In the Jarillon
project, they miss a complement of public space design. As important themes for the future for urban and
landscape design, they see the management and protection of the water streams coming to the Cali rivers into
eco-parks, the second phase of the Corridor river Cali and the old train line (lineal parks). In relation the Cali
river, they miss a regional vision that goes further than municipal boundaries.
They also see potential in relation to the bicycle master plan which is priority in the current POT. The plan
should integrate isolated lines and articulate them with the public transport.
Alcaldía de Cali Lina Sinisterra Asesora Cooperación Internacional
This area of the major is in charge of international cooperation, of the branding of the city and attracting
investors. They can be a bridge for foreign companies thinking about doing business in the city.
52
Cámara de Comercio de Cali Esteban Piedrahita Uribe Presidente
The current potential of the economy of Cali nowadays is highlighted. This potential deals with non-dependence
of oil, gold or energy, the largest recipient of remittances in the country and an industrial city by tradition (food
and consumer goods). However, they do not see much potential for Dutch designers, architects or urban planners
because of the limited public funds of the city and high Euro prices.
Arquitectos BYE Burckhardt y Elly Burckhardt Arquitecta, directora

Echeverri
Elly is a recognized architect in Cali. She developed the project of the tunnel of the Avenida Colombia and the
pedestrian promenade on top of the tunnel which won the national architecture price for urban design in the
Colombian biennale in 2014.
She sees a deficiency and potential for designers in the public spaces of Cali. The city lacks quality public spaces.
The city needs spaces for interaction, where people can meet and talk like it was traditional in the centre of Cali
in former days. She thinks that the recent public space projects (her project of the promenade Colombia and the
river Cali linear park by West 8), public servants and the city starts realizing the value of well designer public
space so this opens possibilities for future projects.
Grupo Cali Ciudad Verde Santiago Eder Contact for project Rio Cali
Santiago found a group of entrepreneurs and wealthy inhabitants of Cali to pay a new design for the park of the
river by West 8 with whom he had previously worked.
As potential areas to work in Cali he identifies urban renewal and large public space projects linked to urban
renewal.
According to him the biggest difficulty for Colombia to hire Dutch companies is that there is not a taxes treaty
signed between the two countries. Colombia has treaties with Spain and Switzerland. Therefore, a Colombian
client paying a Dutch company doing work in Colombia should pay 33% taxes besides other taxes like VAT.
Advice is to find a company in Spain to pay the Dutch, in which case taxes would only be 13%. Another big
threshold is the resistance by the SCA to foreign architects entering the Colombian market. Language is also a
big limitation, due to the limited domain of English in Colombia.
He is positive about the added value of working with Dutch landscape designers to the Colombian know how.
He mentions how in Colombia housing has always been solved in a way which is not pedestrian friendly nor
generating urban life and how Dutch input in his projects brought that.
Constructora Melendez Hermann Murrle Rojas Gerente Proyectos de Vivienda

Juan Carlos Duran Gabal Gerente de Diseño
Angela Ines Losada Arquitecta
Private company developing, building and commercializing projects. They worked with West 8 for the urban
plan and public space design of one of their housing projects.
In their opinion the discipline or urban planning and design lacks expertise in Colombia. Working with West 8
was an enriching experience but they noticed Colombian regulations do not allow many things that in Europe
are normal. West 8 wanted a project with priority to the human scale, public space of quality and avoiding closed
compounds as it is the common practice in Colombia. The regulation did not allow many of those proposals and
clients would not buy such project. Therefore, the result is an in between the Dutch proposal and the Colombian
reality. Nevertheless, the collaboration resulted in a project which they think it adds quality to the standards
which meant in some cases less economical profit for them. For example, the norm is to leave 10 m for the street
and sidewalks sections and with West 8 they designated 18 meters for this. People recognize the value of more
public space, but are not willing to pay for it.
They see possibilities for a Dutch consortium that could develop one of the partial plans for expansion of the
city. Similarly, urban renewal could be done by a consortium. A consortium should bring the design and plan for
the project but also the financial means.
Comfandi Doris Ximena Lenis Jefe Emprendimiento

Diana Ledesma Coordinadora Operativa de
Emprendimiento Cultural
The programme Cultural and Creative Industries in Cali, leaded by Comfandi and partly sponsored by BID, is
considered unique and innovative in these sectors in the country. The programme mainly aims at supporting and
53
interconnecting the cultural and creative industries of the region.

This programme includes Industrial and Graphic Design businesses. However, the support and attention is
mainly given to cultural organizations (e.g. theatre) and creative industries in different areas (e.g. advertisement,
handcrafts). At Comfandi, they see cultural entrepreneurship as an important economic pillar for the region.
They do not specify what kinds of collaborations could be beneficial for these entrepreneurs. However, they do
recognize the potential for possible business exchange between the Industries in both countries, in particular for
the expertise of Dutch designers in topics that are not yet well-known in Colombia.
Comfandi María del Pilar Ramírez Jefe departamento de vivienda

Paladines (by phone)
The housing direction of COMFANDI develops social housing projects in the whole department of Valle. They
are interested in solutions to involve sustainability in their social housing projects. They would like solutions for
example for sustainable exterior lightning and water management of the housing projects as well as more
sustainable materials. Technical and design solutions are important, but it is also important its financial
feasibility since the budget for social housing is very limited and by law, it cannot be exceeded.
Imágenes gráficas Diego Fernando Alomia Gerente de Mercadeo y Ventas
Imágenes Gráficas is one of the biggest companies in the graphic and printing industries in Cali (Including the
design and production of POP material). They have an in-house group of (graphic and industrial) designers for
their projects, and a production plant in which they develop and produce all their products.
They are interested in alliances with Dutch companies that have the same interests and wish to enter the
Colombian market. Part of their team is visiting The Netherlands this year to learn from the industry in the
country and to look for possible business opportunities.
El Bando Creativo Roberto Caro Director Ejecutivo
El Bando Creativo is a graphic and advertising agency in Cali, specialized in editorial production and the
development of campaigns with a social background (e.g. project with the WWF). They see as a main issue the
lack of a ‘design culture’ in the city. They mention that it is sometimes difficult to sell design separated from the
product itself.
They see as a big strength of their company their knowledge of the context in which they work. Because of this,
they believe possible collaborations with their Dutch counterparts could be thought of more like ‘associations’
for specialized projects, instead of Dutch companies trying to open a market in the city.
Universidad ICESI Luis Alfonso Mejia Director programa diseño industrial

Maria Clara Betancourt Jefe Departemento de Diseño
Andrés Naranjo Director Maestría en Gestión de la
Innovación
ICESI has the most recognized programme of Industrial Design in the city, and a new master’s programme in
Innovation Management. As a main issue they point out the fact that design is not well paid in Colombia, and
that it is rather a new discipline in the country. Besides, they argue that Cali is the third city in population in
Colombia, and that businesses in this field are mainly done in bigger cities (i.e. Bogota and Medellin).
Nevertheless, they see great potential in two main fields: first, and as an academic institution, they would like to
promote exchanges between universities with certain affinities with them. Second, they would like to make
more alliances with academic institutions and private companies to collaborate with their students in their many
projects (e.g. by posting projects or partnering up for international events).
Medellin
Ruta N Kit Sin Profesional de Negocios del
Conocimiento
Carlos Andrés Jaramillo Profesional Distrito de Innovación
Ruta N Medellín is particularly interested in promoting the growth of the creative industries in the city, mainly
the ones focused on R+D and based on a technological development. With their program ‘Business landing’ they
help national and international companies to ‘land’ in the city by providing them with a shared space, certain
incentives depending on the industry, and in close contact with their network of companies at their Innovation
54
District.
They mentioned that this program could be interesting for Dutch companies that want to do business in the city.
Additionally, they see as a potential opportunity for Dutch partners, their large network of companies within the
creative sector. Ruta N is interested in hosting and explaining their programs to Dutch companies interested in
doing business in Medellin.
Universidad EAFIT Marcela Velásquez Former director of the Bachelor in

Product Design Engineering
EAFIT has been the academic bridge between The Netherlands (particularly with TU Delft) and Colombia for
several years. In 2009 they started with an international project called ´Help Manuel´ in which students from
both universities worked together in innovation projects for the BoP communities of Medellin. Since then, the
collaboration has never stopped, working together with researchers, students and professionals.
They mention that due to these projects, and the consolidation of the profession, companies are more aware of
the value of design. They particularly mention as opportunities for Dutch companies to work on topics such as
service design, visual thinking, new technologies (e.g. solar systems), and conflict resolution (for the peace
process). They are optimistic about the future of design in the city, and wish to keep on collaborating with
Dutch companies and knowledge institutions.
URBAM (Part of Universidad Natalia Castaño Coordinadora Académica

EAFIT)
URBAM EAFIT is an academic initiative part of the University that is actively involved in projects related to
urbanism in the country. Their initiatives are mainly related to three topics: urbanism, environment, and society.
Besides, they manage the Master’s degree in urban and environmental processes at the university.
As an academic initiative, they would like to disseminate their knowledge, as well as learn from the expertise of
different stakeholders. They see great potential in collaboration with Dutch institutions in the topics of
urbanism, and possible exchanges with companies.
UTOPICA Lina Marcela Cataño Directora I+D+i

Andrés Walker Director Técnico
UTOPICA designs and develops floating solutions (e.g. houses, schools) for emergency settings and areas where
floods happen regularly. They mention that there is a growing need for these kinds of constructions in many
areas in Colombia, and that the offer is not enough and rather basic.
They would like to talk to their Dutch counterparts to discuss potential collaboration possibilities in this topic.
They recognize the Dutch as thought leaders in this sector. As UTOPICA´s strength, they mention their
knowledge of the social context, the conditions of the areas, and the governmental policies. Besides, they would
like to see more government-to-government collaboration since, they assure, there are almost no regulations for
these projects in the country.
Parque Explora Juan Pablo Gaviria Director de Innovación y Desarrollo

Jose Augusto Ocampo Diseñador Senior
Parque Explora is the biggest interactive science museum in Colombia, with over 300 interactive attractions
mainly focused on the experience of learning. Their museography projects include didactic material,
infrastructure, and (learning) experiences for their users. Currently, they house over 30 designers working in
multidisciplinary and, oftentimes, international projects.
They would like to forge alliances with other interactive museums to exchange knowledge and possible
expositions. However, they find it difficult to do so with The Netherlands because of the distance and the
current currency devaluation in Colombia. They also see potential in bringing (Dutch) experts on the topic to
participate in their exhibitions and their design processes.
HACEB Marcela Jaramillo Jefe de diseño

Maria Isabel Gallego Design Manager
HACEB has been actively using design in their business for 5 years. Before that, the company was more focused
on production techniques and on the use of new technologies for their products. They see as a threat all the
competitors that are entering the market (e.g. Samsung, challenger, LG, Panasonic) with their aggressive
marketing strategies. However, they mention that their biggest strength is their knowledge of both the context
55
and the people in it. This, they say, gives them a competitive advantage that could also become a strategic value
for possible collaborations with Dutch companies.
They would like to develop collaborative projects with different organizations to create innovative products.
They have done this before with students from Delft, but they would like to repeat it with other organizations
and possibly other academic institutions.
MUMA Pablo Naranjo Director de Diseño
MUMA is a 65 year old company, specialised in the design and manufacturing of furniture. They export 20% of
their production to 18 countries in Latin America, and since 15 years ago, they consider ‘design’ as a strategic
value of their company. Their innovation strategies include working with internationally renowned designers
such as Karim Rashid and Alberto Mantilla.
They see as an issue (or perhaps an opportunity) the decline of an industrialized economy and the advent of a
‘service economy’ (e.g. more shared working spaces and less private offices). According to them, this is
threatening the future of the furniture market and possible collaborations with foreign companies. However,
they would like to interact with Dutch organizations to look for potential collaboration opportunities in the
field of design. They claim Colombian designers are well equipped to work jointly with international partners.
Besides, they see great potential in knowledge transfer between the countries.
ImasD Carolina Alzate fundadora y directora creativa
ImasD is perhaps one of the few widely recognized design agencies in Colombia. Even though their specialty is
packaging and branding, their core business, according to them, is the use of Design Thinking for any innovation
process. ImasD has done many projects with international partners in Latin America and Europe, and has been
recognized with international awards for their work (e.g. Pentawards).
They believe the Colombian market is starting to learn about the real value of design. Because of this, they
believe there are many opportunities for international companies to start competing in topics related, but not
limited to, design thinking, business and service design. They see potential in collaborating with Dutch firms for
their expertise in topics that are new in Colombia (e.g. service & business design), and because of their history in
the design world.
Barranquilla
Area Metropolitana de Oswaldo Bermudez Director Planeación
Barranquilla
The AMBq faces large challenges in relation to the planning of the territory in which they see added value in
Dutch knowledge. They want to build a network of public spaces in the city and stimulate a process of
densification. Barranquilla has a large challenge in relation to water management and urban planning and design.
They have to deal with the water streams that were paved and that are a threat with heavy rains and to turn the
city back to the Magdalena river recuperating the riverbeds. As a metropolitan area is authority in planning and
transport, they are thinking of public transport along the river. For this they would be interested in getting
contacts with Dutch companies producing water transport. Due to the characteristics of the region built in a
delta, a lot of know how about integral regional and urban planning dealing with technical issues together with
issues about human scale an sustainable cities is needed.
Empresa de desarrollo urbano de Ramón Vides Secretario General

Barranquilla EDUBAR
The enterprise of urban renewal was crated in the 90s for recommendation of the JICA. It is a mixed company
67% public and 23% owned. They do project development for renewal areas in Barranquilla and consultancy for
the municipality. Current projects are the area for the Centre-American games and the La Loma island, a new
urban development between the river and the city centre. They are developing a plan for the restoration and
renewal of the centre together with a British urban planning office since they receive cooperation aid from
British funds. About the question for possibilities to work with Dutch urban planning or design offices, they
responded that they want companies that come together with investment and are willing to develop an area.
Cámara de Comercio de Jorge Bermudez Celín Director Desarrollo Regional

Barranquilla Competitivo
Yalmar Vargas Tovar Coordinador de Gestión Urbana
56
Because the cámara de comercio supports the regional development of Barranquilla and the region, they get
involved in urban themes and collaborate with public and private institutions to connect them, and to generate
debate that adds to improve urban quality.
They think a lot is needed in Barranquilla in terms of design and detailing of sidewalks and public space. AS the
AMB they also see a lot of potential in the management and design of the water streams which are a threat to the
city and can become a potential for landscape addition to the city. Another potential area is the re-development
of the areas along the river which have changed use from industrial to mixed and where PPP projects are
expected. There are also a lot of basic needs unsolved in the city like proper water treatment which still need to
be solved and for which Dutch know how and technology could be helpful.
Together with other parties, they are initiating a metropolitan observatory to compile and compare data about
the metropolitan area, they would be happy to share knowledge about this project. Finally, as mentioned in other
cities, with the law on sustainable building operating half 2016 for Barranquilla, knowhow and sustainable
solutions and materials will be needed.
Transmetro Ricardo Restrepo Roca Gerente

Álvaro Sánchez Rosero Subgerente de Operación
Transmetro is the organization taking care of the management and operation of the BRT system of Barranquilla.
Within their activities for the city they take care of the design and construction of the public space along the
transmetro lines. They see large deficiencies in the design and expertise about public space in the city. A manual
should be developed in order to have guidelines and standards for universal accessibility. Another deficiency they
see is in the relation between the public transport lines and a really urban renewal project that should be
connected to the lines and stations. For this purpose there is an institutional vacuum. Currently urban renewal is
only done by private parties because of business opportunities and the city is losing possibilities by capturing the
added value. There is a need to introduce ideas of TOD. This would also help to get density in the Transmetro
system to make it more financially feasible. They are now preparing the ToR for a large consultancy assignment
to restructure the whole BRT system of the city.
SITUM Daniel Sarabia Mancini Gerente de Urbanismo e

Infraestructura
Luis Carpintero Arquitecto, Urbanista
SITUM is the urban developer of ARGOS group. They develop projects in land from ARGOS, which in most of
the cases used to allocate industrial areas from the company. They are developing a large area in Barranquilla in
which they make the urban plans, design and the infrastructure and leave the construction and
commercialization of the blocks to commercial developing companies. They have worked with foreign
companies in the past but did not have a good experience. They missed the local involvement of the company.
To the question on whether they would be interested to work with foreign firms then responded it is difficult
due to high fees. Thought they are known with Dutch companies, particularly landscape designers and they
would like to do more with sustainable solutions on the public space on their projects. For this they face
regulation problems and lack of culture since peoples is not willing to pay for public space.
ProBarranquilla María Margarita Acosta Asistente de Dirección Ejecutiva
ProBarranquilla is the promotion and investing agency of the city and the department. They explained the good
business climate in the region and the potentials. Their focus is on metal mechanics, chemical products and
plastics, food and beverages and pharmaceuticals. They also see great potential in logistics and offshore industry.
Not so much is done or acknowledged about creative industries. They provide fiscal benefits for companies that
establish themselves in Barranquilla and can be the bridge for consortia interested in PPP projects.
Universidad del Norte, Escuela Alexander S. Niño Profesor Investigador - Coordinador

de Arquitectura, Urbanismo y Maestría en Urbanismo y Desarrollo
Territorial - MUDT
Diseño
The faculty has recently worked together with ETH Zurich in a Project for the inner city of Barranquilla. In this
what they want to have a role in the debate about the future of the city and the model it should follow. As one
interesting opportunity at University level, the Europe days are mentioned. Each year the university organizes
Europe days about one European country in which at university level lectures and debates are organized around
that country. The Netherlands could be guest in one of the coming years. They take part in the table about
57
design for Colciencias in which they start design letting recognition at scientific level. In the recognition of
design for a broader public and at political level there is still a lot to do and they would appreciate sharing of
knowledge and experience in this theme.
58
APPENDIX 2: RELEVANT STAKEHOLDERS
In the table below, the main organizations and stakeholders related to the creative industries in the
Netherlands and in Colombia are presented. The chosen organizations resulted from the research done
previously to the visit, as well as to the conclusions drawn after the interviews. They are divided in four groups:
(1) Facilitating and clustering organizations, (2) Public organizations (3) Knowledge institutions, and (4)
Support organizations to work abroad or start doing business in Colombia. It is worth mentioning that this list
is not exhaustive, but gives an overview of the relevant organization of the sector.
Facilitating website Remarks

organizations
Topsector creatieve www.topsectoren.nl/creatieve One of 9 topsectors of the national
industrie industrie government
Dutch Creative Council www.creative-council.nl/ Advisory board of the Creative industries
ClickNL www.clicknl.nl The Dutch Creative Industries
knowledge and innovation network.
Het Nieuwe Instituut/ www.hetnieuweinstituut.nl Institute for architecture, design, e-cultuur
The new institute
Creative Industries fund www.stimuleringsfonds.nl/en/ supports and funds creative projects (abroad)
Association of urban www.bnsp.nl
planners and urban
designers
Association of architects www.bna.nl www.bna.nl/international informs about
working abroad
Association of Dutch www.bno.nl http://bno.nl/internationaal
Designers informs about working abroad
Registration of architects www.architectenregister.nl The architecture and urbanism title is
and urban planners protected
Education and knowledge institutions
Delft University of www.tudelft.nl Offers bachelor, master and PhD education in
Technology architecture, urbanism and industrial design.
Eindhoven University of www.tue.nl Offers bachelor, master and phd education in
Technology architecture, urbanism and industrial design
Eindhoven Design www.designacademy.nl Many applied universities offer bachelor
Academy education and academies for architecture,
urbanism and design.
Institute for Housing and www.ihs.nl Urban management and development
Urban Development education. Part of the Rotterdam Erasmus
Studies University
Amsterdam institute for www.ams-amsterdam.com Collaboration between universities, public and
advanced metropolitan private parties to find urban solutions.
solutions
Platform31 www.platform31.nl Knowledge and networking organization for
urban and regional development.
Internationalization
Federation Dutch www.dutchcreativeindustries.nl Collaborations between 8 design associations
Creative Industries en to support working abroad
www.creativeholland.com
Grensverleggers www.grensverleggers.nl and Part of CSR the Netherlands and helps SME in
www.futureproof.community design disciplines to expand abroad
Sustainable urban delta www.sustainableurbandelta.nl/ Many organizations promote the Netherlands
abroad. Sustainable urban delta promotes
integrated solutions for delta regions.
59
Colombian organization Creative Industries
Facilitating and website Remarks

clustering
organizations
RAD (Red Académica de www.radcolombia.org They cluster the main academic programs of
Diseño) design in the country and represent their
interests
Comisión Profesional http://www.mincit.gov.co/publi Controls and monitors the profession of
Colombiana de Diseño caciones.php?id=15977 Industrial Design in the Country
Industrial
CPNAA www.cpnaa.gov.co National Council of Architecture and assistant

professions, control and monitors the
profession of architecture
ADGCO www.adgcolombia.org Association of Graphic Designers
Andigraf www.andigraf.com.co Cluster of companies of the graphic
communication industry
Cámara de Comercio www.ccb.org.co Clusters for creative industries, support to
from each city (Bogotá, innovation. Accompany local governments in
Cali, Barranquilla, www.camarabaq.org.co themes of regional and urban planning and
development
Medellin)
www.camaramedellin.com.co
ADGORA www.adgora.org Clusters and represents the advertising

industries in Colombia
PRANA Incubadora www.pranaincubadora.org Incubator for the creative industries in
Colombia
CAMACOL www.camacol.co Association of companies related to the
construction sector at national level and with
regional dependences
CCCS www.cccs.org.co Colombian Building Green Council
SCA Sociedad www.sociedadcolombianadearq Association of Architects. Organizes the Bienal
Colombiana de uitectos.org Colombiana de Arquitectura
Arquitectos
(main) public institutions at national level

Ministry of housing www.minvivienda.gov.co The ministry develops guidelines for urban and
territorial planning and manages all the
programs of new housing for lower incomes
Ministry of Environment www.minambiente.gov.co In charge of environment, natural resources
and sustainable development
Fondo de adaptación www.fondoadaptacion.gov.co In charge of reconstruction of areas affected by
winter or natural disasters
FINDETER www.findeter.gov.co Development bank financing projects towards
sustainable urban development. Canalizes
funds from the IABD. Signed a MOU with
embassy in Bogotá
DNP www.dnp.gov.co National Planning department
Innpulsa Colombia www.innpulsacolombia.com/ To support and promote the growth of
entrepreneurship and innovation
Pro-Colombia www.procolombia.co Promoting Colombia internationally as
business opportunities
(main) public institutions at municipal level
Secretaries or Bogotá: www.sdp.gov.co In charge of partial urban plans for the city and
Departments of Planning of design of public space
60
Cali:
www.cali.gov.co/planeacion
Medellín:
https://www.medellin.gov.co/irj
/portal/ciudadanos?Navigation
Target=navurl://20e7da4ff2f380
7b9fc559aae1df337f
Barranquillla:
http://www.barranquilla.gov.co
/nuestras
dependencias/secretaria-de
planeacion
Empresas de renovación Bogotá: www.eru.gov.co Public enterprise from the city to develop
urbana urban renewal projects
Cali: www.cali.gov.co/emru
Medellín: www.edu.gov.co
Barranquillla:
www.edubar.com.co
Areas Metropolitanas Medellín: Authorities in mobility, spatial and territorial

www.metropol.gov.co planning and environment
Barranquillla:
www.ambq.gov.co
Local investment agencies Bogotá: Local promotion agencies

or international offices www.en.investinbogota.org
Medellín: www.acimedellin.org
Barranquillla:
www.probarranquilla.org
(main) Education and knowledge institutions
Universidad de los Andes www.uniandes.edu.co Offers bachelor and master’s programs in
design and architecture
Universidad Nacional de www.unal.edu.co Offers bachelor and master’s programs in
Colombia design (industrial and graphic), architecture and
urbanism
Universidad EAFIT www.eafit.edu.co Offers bachelor and master’s programs in
Industrial Design Engineering
Universidad ICESI www.icesi.edu.co Offers bachelor programs in design (graphic
and Industrial) and a master’s program in
innovation management
Universidad Jorge Tadeo www.utadeo.edu.co Offers bachelor programs in design (graphic
Lozano and industrial)
Universidad Pontificia www.upb.edu.co Offers bachelor and master’s programs in
Bolivariana (graphic and industrial)
Universidad de Caldas www.ucaldas.edu.co Offers bachelor and master’s programs in visual
design, and the only PhD program in design in
Colombia
Universidad del Norte www.uninorte.edu.co Offers bachelor programs in design (graphic
and industrial)
Media, events organizations
61
Bogotá Innova www.Bogotáinnova.com Support to local and international companies

in the creative sector in Colombia (amongst
others)
Revista Proyecto Diseño www.proyectod.com Biggest design publication in Colombia. In
charge of giving and organizing the Lápiz de
Acero award
Bogotá Design Festival www.Bogotádesignfestival.co Yearly event that promotes good design
practices in the Country
Medellin Design Week www.medellindesignweek.com Yearly event that promotes good design
practices in the Country
BIUA Bienal www.bienalesdearquitectura.es Two yearly event that awards architecture and
Iberoamericana de urbanism in Spain/Latin America
Arquitectura y Urbanismo
62
This is a publication of:
Netherlands Enterprise Agency

Prinses Beatrixlaan 2
PO Box 93144 | 2509 AC The Hague
T +31 (0) 88 042 42 42
E tf@rvo.nl
www.rvo.nl/tf
This publication was commissioned by the ministry of Foreign Affairs

© Netherlands Enterprise Agency | April 2016
Publication number: RVO-054-1601/RP-INT
NL Enterprise Agency is a department of the Dutch ministry of Economic

Affairs that implements government policy for agricultural, sustainability,
innovation, and international business and cooperation. NL Enterprise
Agency is the contact point for businesses, educational institutions and
government bodies for information and advice, financing, networking and
regulatory matters.
Netherlands Enterprise Agency is part of the ministry of Economic Affairs.

Opportunities For Architecture Urbanism and Design in Colombia

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Fact-finding mission to Colombia

on opportunities for architecture,

Commissioned by: Netherlands Enterprise Agency Transition Facility Colombia

URBANOS sustainable urbanism

SimonJJ / SEVEN Innovation

Abbreviations and definitions.................................................................................................................................................................................... 4

Resumen ejecutivo ............................................................................................................................................................................................................ 7

Chapter 1. Introduction, research questions and approach............................................................................................11

1.1. Introduction and research question ...................................................................................................................................................... 11

6.3 Potential clients Urbanism........................................................................................................................................................................... 39

ACFA Asociación Colombiana de Facultades de Arquitectura

Colombia and the Netherlands

Creative industries in the Netherlands

Creative industries in Colombia

Demand and market outlook

More difficult steps: Learn and work together

Harder: Long term presence

Colombia y los Países Bajos:

Las industrias creativas en los Países Bajos:

Las industrias creativas en Colombia:

Pasos más difíciles: Aprender y trabajar juntos

Más difícil: Presencia a largo plazo

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION, RESEARCH

Colombia was part of the countries with the

1.2 APPROACH AND STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT

Structure of the report

CHAPTER 2. DUTCH OFFER IN THE SECTORS OF

Markthal Rotterdam designed by MVRDV. Source: www.flickr.com/photos/mattingham/16138878237.jpg

2.1 CREATIVE INDUSTRIES IN THE NETHERLANDS

Some data about the creative industry:

2.2 ORGANIZATION OF THE SECTOR

2.3 DUTCH OFFER IN THE SPECIFIC SECTORS

• Residential, such as individual housing, villa's and apartment buildings; and

• Typography and calligraphy; designing letters, words and texts.

2.5 THE DUTCH SECTOR IN AN INTERNATIONAL PERSPECTIVE

Challenges for working abroad

• Legislation and liability.

CHAPTER 3. INTRODUCTION TO COLOMBIA

3.1 COUNTRY, DEPARTMENTS, METROPOLITAN REGIONS AND MUNICIPALITIES

3.2 ECONOMY AND URBANIZATION

The Netherlands focuses on Colombia in the sectors of

Political map of Colombia. Source:

Urbanization and growth

3.3 WHERE TO START?

Bogotá, Antioquia (capital city Medellin) and

Panoramic picture of Bogota. Source www.flickr.com/photos/robertocontrer/19263920981

3.4 STAKEHOLDERS CREATIVE INDUSTRIES

3.5 PUBLIC ASSIGNMENTS

Tenders in urban design and planning

3.6 EVENTS AND COMPETITIONS

1. Medellin Design Week (ID GD)

2. Bogotá Design Festival (ID GD)

3. Festival internacional de la imagen (International Image Festival) (ID GD)

4. Premio Lápiz de Acero (ID GD A U)

6. Expo Construcción y expo Diseño (A U ID)

7. Bienal de arquitectura, bienal iberoamericana de arquitectura, BIAU (A U)

3.7 BUSINESS, KNOWLEDGE EXCHANGE AND COLLABORATION

CHAPTER 4. DESIGN IN COLOMBIA

Solar Car Primavera By EAFIT. Source: www.flickr.com/photos/eafit/18242048690

4.1 DESIGN IN COLOMBIA

Andes and EAFIT started design programmes

4.2 INDUSTRIAL DESIGN

4.2.1 STAKEHOLDERS FOR THE INDUSTRIAL DESIGN SECTOR