Architects:Triangular

Area :2000 m²

Year :2020

Photographs :Nico Saieh, Ximena Muñoz

Architects : Tomás Swett Amenábar, Gonzalo De la Parra García

Collaborating Architects : Alejandro Armstorng, Gabriel Díaz

City : Santiago de Chile

Country : Chile

The assignment consisted of the design of an event center for 1,000 people located in Santiago de Chile. The ruins of an old 19th-century mansion are located on a small hill on the lot.

Working with archaeologists, all of the stone and masonry walls that remained in the place were rescued. The cleaning and removal of soil accumulated by earthquakes and looting revealed the importance and elegance of the ruins, transforming them into elements that could be protagonists within the architectural proposal.

In this way, the main concept was to value the vestiges and original materials of the existing ruin so that they function as a backdrop for the events center, seeking to build only the essential elements required for the new uses and programs.

The project is integrated into a system of walls, patios, and esplanades that configure interior, extension, and cocktail spaces. Being located among the ruins of the house allowed it to have privileged views over the sector, and in turn, become a recognizable urban landmark for the community.

The project proposes two large hermetic "wooden bars" that contain the service and administration areas required for an event center. All bathrooms, administrative areas, and support for guests are located in one area, while the other houses the kitchens, warehouses, equipment, and services for suppliers. The recovery of original pavements, reinforcement of perimeter walls, and cleaning of vertical walls of brick and stone were carried out.

Between the existing walls and these programmatic bars, four exposed reinforced concrete walls are proposed, structurally distributed to reduce deformations in the event of earthquakes. The walls support a large 1,100 m2 suspended steel and wood roof that shades and configures the large events hall.

With this, a wide space free of pillars is achieved, with five-meter-high glass enclosures around the entire perimeter, visually “opening” the interior spaces towards the pedestrians and adjacent ruins and geographical environments. In addition, these enclosures contain large mobile glass doors, allowing the space to be naturally ventilated, reducing its demand for air conditioning and connecting the hall with the system of patios at different levels of the area of ruins.

Thus, the project seeks an articulation between avant-garde architecture and the recovery of patrimonial architecture that witnessed a historical period in Chile. The aim is to, on one hand, clearly differentiate what is new and what is patrimonial; and on the other, that the new elements are respectfully integrated with proportion and scale among the existing ruins.

The reconstruction of the original floor plan of the house through drawings of masonry walls on the floor of the main hall was part of the project to show the scale and magnitude of the original building that was no longer there.

The landscaping work was key to the reintegration of the project with its context and to promote the use of original outdoor esplanades as cocktail areas, using native species of low water consumption.

In turn, the lighting from the ground on the walls of the ruins reveals their relevance and weight within the project, in contrast to the transparency and lightness of the hall and its wooden roof.

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