Young Architects Program International

The possibility for an urban or architectural project to evoke spontaneous actions of its inhabitants is, one of the most enriching possibilities that architecture can exert. The main aim of the project is to exercise this value, subordinating all the decisions of its design process to this condition.

First, we should observe the types of urban behaviors between people that occur spontaneously, in the city of Santiago, as in other parts of the world where these relationships are made at a considerably more numerous than in our context.

We determine what action (fluctuating) are the activities that will pick up the project and therefore which of these are relevant to the size of the order. On the other hand we had a given perimeter to generate a project. We identify operational lines from it, and from inversely solved than usual to avoid falling into formal compositions, what it means a volume full of 30 x 24 x 5 mts being the height determined by a relevant proportion to space.

We emptied the volume to achieve insert the sum of measures of the observed activities. The intention in this operation is to create interior-exterior, intimate, limited dimensions. The determinated mass should be conceived from a basic building module that would allow a simple and efficient implementation. This ought to exercise translucent, required to generate a space determined by its envelope, but linked to the environment, as well inside the landscape as from the outside to the activities. To do this we chose a piece of eucalyptus of varied dimension and excelled 5 meters.

To this structure vertical base, it incorporated a horizontal structure made of stretch cotton twine dyed in bright colors, which identifies it as a unique place, out of the ordinary (core element in the definition of the internal atmosphere). The soil, defined dark wood chip are coupled to the movable floor supported, all black, absorbing the shadows of the rods and ropes, and letting them be thrown plenty of the same structures and people. A cloud of spray water allows bathing what constitutes an ephemeral element on movement that is inserted into the vertical structure. In the southern part of the volume, there is the prelude to the project, ready to host various urban activities generated through the project.

In the distance a neutral unrecognizable volume is inserted in the landscape. When approaching infinite distinguished white wooden rods that intrigue by the non-recognition of any architectural pattern orientation. Once you are in front of it, you can distinguish between the rods intense fuchsia colour, a cloud of water and the sound of people around some everyday activity: the sound of children playing, some people talking, sound of water, and so on.

This situation calls for entry through the rods and in the end it perceived a widing limit that defines a broker. In this instance the previous perception becomes sharper. Then you enter a space where intrigue surprising turns into satisfaction, is a place where leisure becomes intimate and intense a value within the frame of town.

Text submitted by Juan Agustín Soza