EAFIT is a place to study and learn but also to investigate, innovate, create, explore, experience culture, and feel a sense of wellbeing. A place to stay...
Located on the south side of Medellín, in the El Poblado sector, the main campus covers nearly 128,000 square meters (31 acres) and features blocks of classrooms, offices, laboratories, athletic facilities, auditoriums, small squares, gardens, and other spaces conducive to research, academic, sporting, cultural, and leisure activities.
The Engineering Building is a major architectural highlight on campus and one of the country’s green buildings due to its natural façade insulation, rainwater harvesting and reuse system, low-wattage lighting, and air flow control system for air conditioning optimization.
The seventh and eighth floors of that same building have been set aside as a space for senior administrators of the university’s Master of Business Administration (MBA) and Master of Science in Applied Finance (MAF) programs.
Other emblematic constructions on campus include the Luis Echavarría Villegas Cultural Center and Library; and Blocks 26, 27, and 38, where the schools of Management, Economics and Finance, Law, Humanities, and Sciences are located. In addition, the Argos Center for Innovation is currently being built on the west side of campus.
The university has expanded in recent years, acquiring several residences in the La Aguacatala neighborhood that currently house the Asia Pacific Studies Center and the southern branch of the Confucius Institute of Medellín, the Artistic Development Department, the Business English Program, the Institutional Marketing Department, the Urban and Environmental Studies Center (Urbam), the EAFIT University Press, the Cultural Promotion Area, the Creative Communication Area, the Alumni Center, and other divisions.
Further growth will also be possible because of the university’s acquisition of Los Guayabos, a park located opposite the main campus where many of the projects contemplated in the institution’s Master Plan are to be situated.
University-Park
Architect Juan Fernando Forero, who was commissioned by the EAFIT president’s office to change the campus layout, found the university was oriented toward the Medellín River and decided to move it more toward its physical center, where the Student Plaza is presently located.
Each of these architectural spaces is in harmony with nature, enabling different species of flora and fauna to blend in with and compliment the built infrastructure and make the campus a University-Park.
Also contributing to this symbiotic relationship between nature and architecture are sculptures such as Hugo Zapata’s El Ágora and Rony Vayda’s Los Propileos.
This University-Park, designed by town planners Carlos Uribe and Jorge Mesa, earned the institution the 2008 Lapiz de Acero Award in the Public Spaces category.