As the birthplace of our most recent Pritzker Prize winner, Alejandro Aravena, Santiago, Chile is full of iconic architecture. Because many of these buildings are situated in busy urban areas, their superior design is easy to miss. In an effort to encourage viewers to slow down and appreciate the volume, facades, context, and function of these urban landmarks, Benjamin Oportot and Alexandra Gray of San Sebastian University guided their 4th-year students in producing axonometric drawings of 11 buildings. The project centered on medium-sized office buildings built between 1989 and 2015, particularly focusing on their use of reinforced concrete.
1. Transoceánica Building / +arquitectos
Students: Patricia Ramirez + Daniela Pavez
The design of this building, made to be the headquarters for Transoceánica companies, is based as a part of the implementation of an energy efficiency system aimed at reducing consumption, improving the quality of workspaces and adopting a respectful attitude towards the environment. (Extract from project report)
Transoceánica Building / +arquitectos
2. Ministry of Social Development Headquarters / Undurraga Devés Arquitectos
Students: Jonathan García + Carlos Acuña
The new building for the Ministry of Social Development is placed in a complex site. On the one side, the church of Santa Ana, one of the most beautiful expressions of religious architecture of the twentieth century in Chile, and on the other, the North-South freeway, one of the largest urban interventions of the 70s that divides Santiago’s city center in two. (Extract of Project Report)
Ministry of Social Development Headquarters / Undurraga Devés Arquitectos
3. CCU Building / +arquitectos-Tuca Arqs-Flaño-Tuca-ADN
Students: Cristina Arévalo + Tamara Bravo
In addition to taking advantage the building’s capacity for diverse uses and services as well as its design and structural advantages, we found that a parallelepiped element, similar to many great examples of quality architecture that we reviewed (SAS Building, United Nations in NY, Mies buildings Van der Rohe, and many others), would keep the building from wearing out or boring easily, thanks to its austerity and repetition. (Extract of Project Report)
Edificio Corporativo CCU - +arquitectos / +arquitectos + Tuca Arqs + ADN + Flaño + Nuñez
4. Cruz del Sur Building / Izquierdo-Lehmann
Students: Alejandra Hernández + Camila Salinas
The towers are seen from below. The triumph of structure over gravity becomes all the more perceptible and manifest the closer we get to the raised mass, until completely vanishing from our visual range; And the estimation of the dimensions changes with a sensation of danger, as in vertigo. (Extract of Project Report)
Cruz del Sur Building / Izquierdo Lehmann
5. Resiter Office Building / Raimundo Lira Arquitectos
Students: Valentina Medina + Daniela Peñaloza
The building was designed so that both volumes are harmonic and are understood asbeing part of a set, with the same cubic volume language from the existing building, a treatment of controlled openings, interior gaps and a new coating material on the facade that respects the color of the existing building’s tone and weight. (Extract of Project Report)
Resiter Office Building / Raimundo Lira Arquitectos
6. Innovation Center UC - Anacleto Angelini / Alejandro Aravena | ELEMENTAL
Student: Biffret Díaz
Our proposal consisted of designing a building where we could demonstrate at least 4 forms of work: a double entry matrix in which one part contained formal and informal work, and the other, individual and collective work. On top of that, it has always seemed to us that face-to-face contact is unparalleled when it comes to creating knowledge. That is why we made plenty of places where people can come together throughout the building (Extract of Project Report)
Innovation Center UC - Anacleto Angelini / Alejandro Aravena | ELEMENTAL
7. Manantiales Building / Izquierdo-Lehmann-Lira-Peñafiel
Students: Marcelo Riffo + Fernando Ahumada
We wanted to project the building as a simple and clear volume, mainly consisting of a regular parallelepiped shaped, 17 story tower that falls directly to the ground on an open corner facing a plaza, and partially encompassed by a shorter and closed 10 story volume on the opposite two sides facing the existing buildings on the interior the block. (Extract of Project Report)
Manantiales Building / Izquierdo Lehmann Arquitectos
8. AryS Building / Peñafiel Arquitectos
Student: Elberth Cea
The clients made a special request. They asked us for a building that would not look like an office tower and that it would be more "like a house". Trying to figure out what this might mean, we started off with the office tower. What they didn’t want was the typical glass building with all its side being the same and that could be anywhere in the world. A building where the interior was connected to the outside only by the sense of sight. (Extract of Project Report)
ARyS House / Peñafiel Arquitectos
9. Costanera Lyon Building / Simonetti-Stewart
Student: Rubén Salinas
We were looking for a single mass that was easy to heat or cool without the need to add layers or use up a lot of energy. For our first mold, like a prototype, we started with the archetypal image of a solid cube and with systematically organized openings. Then we stretched the openings vertically, breaking any relationship between the location of the spans and the number of floors of the building. (Extract of Project Report)
Costanera Lyon / Eugenio Simonetti + Renato Stewart
10. Nueva Vitacura Building / Klotz-Alvano-Riquelme
Student: Rubén Calderon + Franco Mora
Managing this project linked real estate developers and the architects, working together on the questions that would let both parties get what they wanted. It contains four levels of parking, two levels of commercial spaces and another 12 floors of offices. (Extract of Project Report)
Edificio de Vitacura / Renzo Alvano, Pablo Riquelme, Mathias Klotz
11. El Golf Building / Izquiero-Lehmann-Lira-Peñafiel
Students: Jesús Burgos + Felipe Hernández
We were entering into in the urban context of formal and volumetric chaos, so we wanted to define the body of the building as a regular parallelepiped with a symmetrical structure, determined by a reasonable optimization of the constructibility of the ground within the parameters established by current ordinances. (Extract of Project Report)
