Medellín, Colombia is better known for drug kingpins than architects, but a boom in exciting contemporary architecture with a humanitarian approach has both planners and designers flocking to the city.
Architecture critic Christopher Hawthorne paid a visit to Medellín after hearing the hype and is a convert.
He writes, "The city's commitment to public architecture, spearheaded by former mayor Sergio Fajardo, has - as advertised - produced a number of exquisitely designed libraries, schools and parks. Rising in some of Medellín's roughest neighborhoods, these projects are the capstones of a broader civic rebirth that has seen murder rates tumble nearly 90% from their highs of the early 1990s."
Hawthorne sees what's happening in Medellín as a unique blend of the two camps of current architectural trends, the experimental and the humanitarian.
FULL STORY: Medellín, Colombia's architectural renaissance
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