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Architects: Vectorial arquitectura
- Area: 605 m²
- Year: 2018
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Photographs:Javier Basualdo C.
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Manufacturers: Budnik, CHC, CUBIERTAS NACIONALES, Cintac®, Melón Hormigones, Renner Coatings, Volcan
Text description provided by the architects. The project is a mixed building that contains three different programs: a car wash, a co-work, and coffee lounge and an independent administrative office area with the possibility of increasing its surface to twice as much in the future. These three programs must be related to each other, but at the same time, they must be able to work independently. The site is the first restriction of the project, given it must accommodate an easy operation for a comfortable and continuous vehicular movement in each of the stages and services of pre and post wash area, characteristic of a car wash (reception, vacuum, prewash, wash, drying, detailing and vehicle return area).
The project is located on a 2,600 m2 site located in the district of Vitacura, Santiago, which has a 42-meter front facing the north side of Avenida Presidente Kennedy. This privileged front is the second adopted restriction, which gives a great opportunity to be a recognizable milestone to the project, as an iconic element such as or road sign, as part of the immediate image of the vehicular flow parallel to the highway, from east to west at 100 km / h. of Avenida Presidente Kennedy. The project acts as an articulator between these two restrictions or operational scales, by distributing the program in three rectangular volumes, on two floors.
The main volume is a rectangle of 11, 25 meters wide by 35.6 meters deep that is perpendicular to the highway, freeing the ground for vehicular circulation. This volume orders the access and the vehicular exit and separates the zones of reception of vehicles, vacuum area, prewash area, and on the other hand the drying area, detailing area and vehicle return area. It contains the costumer's service area: co-work and coffee lounge, in addition to the operators' rooms and the technical rooms of the washing machines that determine the width of this volume. The second is a volume is composed of operational offices for control of the vehicle area.
The third volume is a rectangle of 11.6 meters wide by 31,1 meters in front of the highway that is available on the second floor, and perpendicular to the largest volume. This is a flexible floor plan with the administrative and commercial offices, meeting rooms and a void crossed by a bridge of observation and control of operations. This element is placed on the other two volumes, creating a portico, the main entrance, through an apparent precarious balance between these three elements, which configure a simple and easy to read form both from the highway and from the entrance.
The skin of the building is a metal facade in the three volumes, giving an industrial character typical of this type of project. On the first floor, the facade is opaque except for some specific and intentional openings, this rectangle contains the entire technical and operational program, while the entire second floor is perforated metal facade as a second skin on the uniform glazed perimeter, reducing air conditioning costs and allowing a pleasant light for the offices independent of the orientations of these.
