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Architects: Murtinho + Raby Arquitectos: Murtinho+Raby Arquitectos - Pedro Murtinho L., Ricardo Contreras A. (1946-2007), Santiago Raby P.
- Year: 2009
Text description provided by the architects. This building is located on a corner of El Bosque Avenue, within Las Condes Local Authority in Metropolitan Santiago, Chile. The neighbourhood has been increasingly the community's office centre with several leading office buildings projects.
Within this urban context, and the specific NW orientation of the site, we met the challenge with a a simple and austere volume treatment of its building materials, mellowed by a special façade strategy, that uses vertical glass wall lining, -a bioclimatic strategy employed to isolate the inner spaces from UV rays-, and creating at the same time, a blurred effect on its boundaries, in the manner of an enchased jewel.
The building has 15 stories of open floor plan; completely built in concrete without any overlay or special colour treatment, intended to achieve a pure and honest clear volume where the focus of attention will be the vertical glass wall lining movement and the signalling access awning. All the building materials are honestly expressed to convey an elegant formal language. We identify two design attributes which create the final identity of the project:
The special vertical glass wall lining acting as an UV filter, contributes to isolate the inner space. This design strategy reduces air conditioning up to an average of near 30%. These vertical glasses are placed against the concrete awning creating a vertical and horizontal rhythm, which identify the form of this office building.
The first two floors of the building have a commercial programme spanning the corner and creating a hierarchy expressed by the concrete awning on the corner perimeter, emphasizing the relationship between pedestrians and architectural form. The main characteristic of this concrete awning are its tilted columns sequence which answer to a structural necessity. As a result, the pedestrian gallery suggests the complete magnitude of a 15 stories building and it gives an expressive solution to an urban corner situation.
The building was conceived within an inquiry to provide a new sustainable and economical solution at the competitive real estate market, avoiding the typical curtain wall option as the only one possibility to design the building façades.
