Designed by architects Tomás Villalón, Nicolás Norero, and Leonardo Quinteros, the Educational Theater of the Arts of Panguipulli has been chosen in Chile as the winning work in the architecture category of ESENCIALES x ArchDaily 2022.
ESENCIALES is an annual meeting organized in Chile by the CityLab platform and the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center, in conjunction with 22 organizations from the creative sector, including ArchDaily, which seeks to "recognize, share and disseminate the most important works of the year, inviting their authors to share their creative processes with their peers and the public".
Inaugurated at the end of October 2022, the Panguipulli Educational Theater of the Arts has a capacity of 252 seats, in addition to an exhibition hall and a cafeteria in its 3,000 sqm. The design was the winning project among 35 proposals submitted to the respective ideas competition launched in 2017 by the Adelanto Corporation of Panguipulli and the Association of Architects' Offices (AOA). At the time, the jury described the wooden proposal as "absolutely remarkable, very controversial and radical", which borrows "exterior elements, the town, and Lake Panguipulli".
Regarding ESENCIALES, ArchDaily will participate for the second consecutive time in the annual meeting: in 2021 the winning work was the Plaza de Armas metro station building in Santiago, designed by the office Beals Lyon Arquitectos.
About this year's choice, Clara Ott, Projects Curator at ArchDaily, highlights a series of decisions in the materialization of the project:
From its lakeside location to the decision to bring a program as enclosed as a theater outdoors through a large window that looks out onto the lake from inside the theater, the theater not only respects the environment but also blends into it, enhancing its natural beauty.
In terms of user experience, the theater is much more than that: its entrance, foyer and hall become the backdrop for local community life.
Likewise, the choice of wood as the main material reflects respect for the local building tradition, and through the use of new technologies and intelligent resources, gives rise to something that sounds impossible: a wooden building that is at times translucent.
In the context of ESENCIALES 2022, Tomás Villalón, Nicolás Norero, and Leonardo Quinteros will participate in a conversation open to the public with architect Nicolás Valencia, Editorial & Data Manager of ArchDaily and Architonic. The panel will be moderated by artist and journalist Claudia Sepúlveda on Tuesday, December 20th, 2022 in Santiago, Chile.
