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Architects: CARREÑO SARTORI Arquitectos
- Area: 5545 m²
- Year: 2015
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Photographs:Marcos Mendizabal
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Manufacturers: CHC
Text description provided by the architects. A design competition for the Institutional Building of the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development in the O'Higgins Region, was called in order to recover the long time disregarded lot of the former prison of Rancagua. The land is embedded in a consolidated commercial area close to the train station. The future building must include two independent units: SERVIU and SEREMI. The lot subdivision strategy was part of the proposal, leaving land available for future development.
The contest called for a building that also includes an idea for a civic urban complex.
The project is an opportunity to act directly on the city. As headquarters for the ministry in charge of planning and territorial development, it was relevant to complement paths and public spaces of the place, in order to improve them. The surrounding buildings have continuous facade and total occupation of the land, making difficult the environmental contact between interiors and exterior.
The dispersion of windows is intended as an optimal strategy to have natural light and ventilation in all offices. The building figure keeps the empty inside the block, having complementary interior/exterior relation.
The site was closed for a 4.5 m. height wall, obstructing the block, resulting in stretches sidewalks without associated programs. The new building -110 meters long and 10 wide- opens an internal garden and public walkway, connecting two parallel streets. With this, the old reclusion interior became open and inclusive for the city. The two main entrances -one for SERVIU, the other for SEREMI- are placed at each end of the building, activating both streets sidewalk too.
The floors are arranged with a central aisle and lateral working spaces. The geometric relationship with the sun is mediated with a system of prefabricated concrete panels, arranged in a combination of parallels and perpendiculars to the facade, allowing distant views and avoiding direct light on desktops. All spaces, including the central corridor are naturally illuminated.
The regulations requires for continuous facade. The proposal replaced the old closed wall with a controlled transparency facade, showing the promenade and interior gardens.
The distance to the edges that the gardens imply, ensures views from the offices to the mountain of the Cordillera de los Andes and Cordillera de la Costa, which borders the valley where the city of Rancagua is located.
