above water

This house is located in Lo Curro hill in Santiago, Chile. The site, long and with gentle slope, is covered with a forest of eucalyptus trees planted 30 years ago and it is crossed by an irrigation canal. It faces north and has a front view of the southern slope of the hill with vegetation, and a side view of the area east towards the city and the Cordillera de los Andes. Schmidt Arquitectos Asociado was commissioned by clients that want formality and programmatic life in the city and the freedom of households out of it. All in all, the client wanted a modern but cozy house.

Organised by a glazed central corridor, the Architects proposed to extend the house on the ground that invites people to explore and enjoy it. This idea was emphasised in order to articulate the house with the landscape and each rooms take advantage of the slope and with through this set their spatial condition. The Architects have chosen natural textures such as stone, wood, slate tiles and Chilean native timber Coihue.

The boundary between inside and outside is diluted by windows that are recessed in the floor and beams. Sliding windows and doors are the only elements with frames and the stone walls of the garden terraces are introduced into the interior to reinforce the spatial continuity. Finally, the existing irrigation canal has been integrated to the house and landscape design, creating tiered lakes thus reflecting the environment, providing sound and moisture to the air.

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.

animal clinic

Santiago Metropolitan Park covers an area of 722 ha. at San Cristobal Hill, Chile. Carreño Sartori Arquitectos have designed a Zoo Nursery within the park consisting a management building, veterinary hospital and nursery. Looking at the project, the observer would realised that the hill within the site determinates the whole complex. The design and construction process are thought without touching the existing stone walls facing the visitor route. The Architects have preserved an open place surrounding the building so to keep the distant view of the hillside, the road and city.

garden strips

Los Molles House is weekend house for a large family without a panoramic view of the Pacific Ocean thus allowing the Architects to orientate the residence in a less expected viewpoint. The brief required a 'minimum' spatial needs of a large family, indicating that if the program was built in one single volume there would be little open space; something undesirable due to the qualities of the site.

The Architects have divided the space in five parallel strips, occupying the site in its full length. The interior scheme of the residence are organized into garden-house-garden-house-garden spaces; this fragmentation defines the levels, produces flow between inside and outside spaces thus creating parallel interior and exterior connections to encourage a more casual life outdoors.In winter, as the number of people reduces, a more inward looking lifestyle is adopted by keeping only the 2nd floor open.

isostatic uplift

In the mountainous region of Patagonia, Chile, a structure can be seen rising from the greenery and the granite mountains that surrounds it. The Architects have used the surrounding forceful elements as inspiration to create the Aonni Mineral Water Plant. By expressing the energy of erosions, tectonic plates, water and wind, the project have exposed the interactions of natural environment forces which are prevalent characteristics of this territory.

Bebin & Saxton have incorporated sustainable design principles as natural lighting, high internal gains and a good daylight factor within the project. Also, a sensitive choice of materials (resistant, flexible, economical and low maintenance) that could cope with extreme climatic fluctuations is used to reflect Punta Arenas, XII Region, Chile.

chimney stacks

Situated in the rural setting of Huentelauquen (Punta Caracoles, IV Region), Chile, the Architects Izquierdo Lehmann have designed a beach house sunken into the landscape as to disappear from the strong winds that howl over the plain plateau. In fact, all you can see from afar is only 5 chimneys arise like sea lookouts. The overall plan of the of the house was to align and face the view over the sea, while the back have a retaining wall on its back for a sunken patio away from the wind. Living and dining rooms are open along both sides with large windows because its function as the main space for the house.