corten chilies

Cristian Fernandez Arquitectos, Lateral Arquitectura + Diseño won the Chilean governments International Architecture Competition for their new cultural centre. The Architects approach to the building was to immediately address the surrounding environment, providing a new relationship to the previously unacknowledged surroundings.  The Architects decided to focus on four main concepts: openness to the city and its urban relationships across a large deck with loose volumes under it, the creation of new public space, the opening of the building to the community by incorporating community programs, and the legitimacy of the project through the incorporation of as many social agents in shaping a new benchmark for the city.

The Architects believe that a arts/culture building should always have varying degrees of transparency, share and engage the visitors not only directly but also to the whole community.  Therefore, the Architects opted for a design that provided openness with in the public spaces and transparency into the interior spaces.  The halls for the performing arts of music, dance, and theater, are on display to the public as 'boxes or containers'. Horizontally the building is organised around three volumes that contain and represent the three major program areas; Documentation Center for the Performing Arts and Music, a Training Room of the Performing Arts and the Great Hall Theater seating 2,000 people. The three buildings are separate at street level providing multiple covered pedestrian spaces. Meanwhile, at the lower levels all three buildings are connected.

The main materials that make up the building are all possible to find in the original building with five design elements that are worth noting; weathering steel, reinforced concrete in sight, glass, steel, and wood. The Architects have chosen the weathering steel (with holes) to link between past, present and future visually.