Together with close friends Matthew Jones, Yasmin Giles and Alistair Wood, we submitted an entry into the annual eVolo Skyscraper competition. Having an open brief we chose to target the social and economic issues afflicting the displaced populations of Colombia. Colombia has the second highest population of internally displaced people [IDP] in the world, behind only Syria. The Norwegian Refugee Council's Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre estimated the total to be at least 5,700,000, 11.5% of the national population, and has been labelled an “invisible crisis” by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

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The central objective of the proposal is to provide shelter and a means of recovery to internally displaced people. The program centres on a core industry to provide work, money and a means to regenerate destroyed communities. The textile and apparel industries contributed 1.4% of Colombia's GDP in an economy that is experiencing significant growth in the region. This diverse market offers new opportunities which the project utilises to provide much needed income.

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Located in Novita, a small town in a rural area of Chocó, the main permanent structure houses a thread and textile manufacturing facility. Utilising a sustainable means of collecting fibres from the forest thread is spun and then woven in a series of looms within the tower to reduce the building’s footprint and impact on natural surroundings. The material is then processed; dyed or patterned. The aim is to not only to produce funds but to also to teach new skills and further the education of these struggling communities.

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Accommodation is provided in the form or irregularly built, temporary bamboo structures. Bamboo is a readily found plant in Colombia and grows incredibly fast, making it an ideal sustainable material to quickly construct temporary homes. This ‘wood of the poor’, as named by Columbian architect Simon Valez, who specialises in its use, is ideally suited to provide quick effective and sustainable temporary shelter which can be easily assembled and disassembled with fluctuating numbers of IDP’s.

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It should be stressed that the proposal is intended to be a temporary shelter to displaced people, providing a safe relief from the chaos of the civil war. The central industrial process remains a permanent fixture, producing material crafted from the sustainable fibres of the rainforest for local communities with transitory accommodation built when required around it. This will provide money, new skills, trades and education until they are ready to move on and regenerate their community.