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Architects: Duque Motta & AA, FIA
- Area: 3344 m²
- Year: 2022
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Photographs:Nicolás Saieh
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Lead Architect: Miguel Cohen
Text description provided by the architects. The assignment consisted of the development of an apartment building for sale in a predominantly residential area of the commune of Providencia. To increase density, the regulations allow for an isolated volume of up to 12 floors without allowing housing on the first floor.
As the central axis of the proposal, the project seeks to connect with the tradition of modern medium-density housing, which had a splendid development in the commune of Providencia since the mid-20th century. Firstly, regarding public space, gives the strip of the front garden to the street and defines a transparent and open entrance hall, integrating itself into the city. In terms of height, an effort is made to use only 8 of the 12 floors allowed by the regulation.
To achieve the required constructability, the operation is to cantilever the building 2.5 meters above the first floor, maximizing the occupation of the upper floors and freeing up ground floor space. The last two floors are set back to not exceed the level of the neighboring properties. The previous operations allow for a transparent and lightweight building on the first floor with a volume up to the 6th floor, which is then set back in a volume, clad in wood, reducing the perception of its height. The building's floor plan, very close to a square, is divided into four quadrants, four corner apartments with double orientation, and two small elevator lobbies connected by the staircase that occupies the center of the floor, allowing for only 2 apartments per elevator. With this configuration, which allows for apartments with a lot of perimeter, another of the spatial qualities that characterized the apartments in Providencia in the 1960s and 1970s is sought-rescued, living-dining spaces that are arranged parallel to the facade, and allow for a large front of natural light and views.
Another important point is the definition of a terrace integrated into the volume, with a proportion of space that allows for active use, extending the front of the living-dining area and connecting to the lobbies, bringing them natural light. Structurally, to achieve the cantilever of the volume from the second floor, a perimeter beam was incorporated that is taken perpendicularly by flag walls that descend to the lower floors and configure the four quadrants.
In terms of facade, the building proposes a setback base on the first floor, a body of 5 levels in which the horizontals are accentuated, with a continuous parapet beam, and a set back strip concerning the beam that approaches the idea of a continuous window combining windows and some wooden planes; to finish with a set back wooden body in two levels to which the corners are cut to accentuate the body of 5 floors and the perception of setback, reducing its volumetric weight. This cut in the corners is curved, giving a certain grace and fluidity to the silhouette of the building against the sky.
The materiality of the building seeks to highlight the three strata of the volume; on the first floor, its transparency is highlighted with glass enclosures; the intermediate floors accentuate the horizontality of the perimeter beam, with a royal yellow handrail, and between these, a continuous solution of windows and planes clad in heat-treated wood is set back, contrasting its natural color with the concrete beams painted graphite. The last two setback levels are clad in the same wood to accentuate the differentiation concerning the volume confined by the beams but tie in with the continuous solution located in the background on the lower floors.
