The Socorro Campus held Expoilustración 2025, an academic exhibition that brought together the work of first- and second-semester students from the Architecture Program, who presented sketches developed from historical, ancestral, and local perspectives. The exhibition, which took place in the Coomuldesa Auditorium, became a space for reflection on the territory, memory, and changes that have marked Latin American architecture.
As part of the training process, students used acetate tracing and micro-tip techniques to reinterpret works by relevant architects from the region, the country, and the world. From the area of Architectural History, the community posed a problem question that gave rise to structured essays on categories such as community, ethics, heritage, natural environment, and technology; reflections that were then complemented by works created in situ.
Professor Eneyda Abreu Plata, a lecturer in the Architecture Program, highlighted the students’ commitment and sensitivity to the challenges of the discipline: “They developed sketches taken on site and others through tracing, while also exploring the four industrial revolutions and their influence on contemporary architecture. They used acetate and marker techniques to represent examples of Latin American architecture and worked on paper with pencil and even watercolor. I would like to highlight the importance they gave to the local area: the Comunal Province, the Guanentina region, Tunja, and the territories where the students are from. They have responded creatively; if this is the present, the future will be very positive,” she said.
Among the proposals on display is the work of Dana Sofía Castañeda Rodríguez, who focused her project on the relationship between architecture and industrialization: “I wanted to show the changes from colonial to modern architecture. I depicted my grandparents’ farm, which has been in my family for three generations: first with rammed earth walls and clay tiles, then with brick, and now with solar panels. I also drew the coffee that is produced there. There have been many changes influenced by European architecture, but I don’t think that’s a bad thing; the two complement each other,” the student explained.
For his part, Kevin González Díaz, a first-semester student, presented an analysis of the effects of industrialization on the Minor Basilica of Socorro: “My topic deals with the impacts of industrialization on the basilica. It was built in 1863, when there was still no electricity. Years later, electricity was installed, which is why we see wiring on the outside,” he said.
Through this academic exercise, the students demonstrated technical mastery, critical thinking, and a deep connection to their territory, establishing themselves as a new generation of architects capable of interpreting the past to project the future.
