The intervention at Plaza Cisneros is part of the wider transformation of the Guayaquil sector, once a vital area of Medellín’s city center that deteriorated after the 1970s due to abandonment and social decline. In 2002, a renewal process began through institutional projects aimed at restoring the area’s physical, economic, and social vitality.

Conceived as a strategic public space, the project operates at both local and metropolitan scales. Locally, it expands public space, improves connectivity, and supports the transformation of surrounding buildings. At the metropolitan level, it provides civic services and open spaces that contribute to urban requalification, improved administrative efficiency, and socio-economic development.

Rather than treating preservation as an end in itself, the project engages critically with Guayaquil’s historical architecture, promoting recovery based on urban and economic viability. Plaza Cisneros thus becomes a contemporary urban landmark that coexists with multiple architectural periods while adding a new layer to the city’s history.

El Bosque de Luz y Sombra (The Forest of Light and Shadow)

The square’s defining feature is El Bosque de Luz y Sombra, a field of 300 light towers across 16,000 square meters that functions as a shaded forest by day and an illuminated landscape by night. The design reconnects key surrounding buildings – the Carré, Vásquez, and EPM Library – by opening direct public access into the square, reactivating a site long isolated by vacant land and traffic infrastructure.

By integrating institutional activity, the project ensured immediate use of the space as both a place of gathering and urban passage. A central open area supports events and performances, while bamboo and guadua groves along the edges provide shade and environmental comfort, transforming Cisneros Square into a dynamic public landscape shaped by light, architecture, and social life.

There are sometimes events held at this plaza. For example, on September 16, 2018, there was the large Maratón Medellín. This Medellín marathon included distances of 42 km, 21 km, 10 km and 5 km. And all these marathons started at Plaza Cisneros.”

Arquitect: Juan Manuel Peláez Freidel
Artist: Luis Fernando Peláez

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Based on information provided by the Archdaily website.