San Alberto Hurtado's Memorial / Undurraga Devés Arquitectos

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Text description provided by the architects. The land where this memorial is located is a small park to the west of the Historic Center of Santiago, surrounded by a series of detached two to three story buildings constructed during the first half of the 20th century. It was here that the most neglected souls in city were accommodated, together with a small hospital, a church and the office of the Hogar de Cristo, a charity founded by Father Hurtado in 1944. The continuity of the facades gave way to a protected interior where, in 1995, we built the Sanctuary of Father Hurtado. The strategy, at that time, was to create a green area that would also serve the series of buildings for workers that surrounded this Sanctuary. The spinal column of the project is a passageway that run lengthwise, dropping as far as 5 meters below the level of the park. At the far end is the tomb of the saint and a small chapel. These buildings can hardly be seen in the midst of the gardens which, with clever landscaping, establishes a complementary relationship with the preexisting buildings.