COLOMBIA. Bogota. 2013. "Bosque de la Esperanza" a 7,500-square-foot canopy designed by Mazzanti in Cazucá, the poorest and most violent slum in or around Bogotá, on a hillside not far from Bosa. A $614,000 project, paid mostly by Pies Descalzos, a private organization established by the singer Shakira.Mr. Mazzanti designed a field of large modules, dodecahedrons, made of green steel mesh and translucent panels, raised on slender steel tubes. The floating structure, perched along the side of a hill, suggests a thicket of trees, like umbrella pines, where there’s not a real tree in sight, a spectacle meant to be visible from far away.
Now children play soccer under the canopy and clean up the square every day, and there’s a vegetable garden with tomatoes and herbs.