© Nicolás Saieh
Architects:
Mobil Arquitectos + Cruz & Browne Arquitectos
Location:
Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
Client:
Inmobiliaria Brotec
Constructor:
Brotec Icafal
Area:
12,100 sqm
Year:
2010 – 2011
Photographs:
Nicolás Saieh
© Nicolás Saieh
This project is an office building located in Santiago de Chile. The site is what we call “head of a urban block”, a north east facing end of a former residential block. The area, “Nueva las Condes”, it is currently under a large urban transformation. It is creating an urban quarter of mixed-use residential, office and retail. The project was conceived as a simple operation keeping the site as open and continuous as possible to the pedestrian movement. The horizontal continuity achieved allowed us to extend the open space and minimized the footprint on the lower level.
© Nicolás Saieh
This unique condition of open space, air and continuity also help us to introduce an urban dimension to a relative small site. We did not wanted to think this building as a generic office tower. We wanted the building to present it self in the city as a cubic volume with equivalent dimensions in height and length and depth. The volume is configured with very clear edges and a minimum contact to the ground. This operation is made to give strength to the idea of continuity and presence. The volume it is in fact made by two bodies slightly displacedone to another on a central axis. This creates two patios on the lower level adding a three dimensional condition to the street.
© Nicolás Saieh
The building, unlike most of the office towers in the area, is a very opaque volume. Each façade is treated as a response to sunlight and heat. We wanted to gain natural light for each office at the same time we where controlling unwanted heat. Due its orientation, the building does not reflect sunlight to its surroundings, neither it absorbs unnecessary direct sunlight. This is a basic condition for sustainable architecture and makes the building perform much better in terms of energy consumption and its impact in the neighbourhood.
elevation 01
Facades-Vertical Surfaces
From the out side, the building is very regular in its configuration. From sequence from floor to ceiling is equal in order to highlight the presence of voids and air. The regularity of whichwindows are placed in the facades is only broken by the vertical and horizontal elements displayed to sunlight control. This new interpretation of prefabricated concrete “brise-soleil” is giving a clear characteristic or identity to this building.
model
Unlike most of the buildings in the area, this volume is more opaque and rougher on its exterior finishes. It takes distance it self from the generic paradigm for office buildings in Santiago (and like anywhere else in the world, the glass façade curtain wall) and resolves issues of character and performance by adding opacity and depth. To the Northern façade, the geometrical and structural challenges are taken by small elements, very rustic and simple angulated concrete shades.
detail 02
These elements are organized in a manner that they act as visual attraction form the street level whilst from the inside it creates a send of enclosure and peace by establishing a distance between exterior en interior. There is no longer just a thin layer of glass between out side and inside, now we can see thickness. The Southern façade on the other hand, is open; there are no vertical elements to control sun or to interfere with views.
© Nicolás Saieh
On this part of the world, the southern exposure is understood as “good light”, so we want to gain it and frame with horizontal lines that protects us from the unwanted heat we could be expose to during mid day in the summer. At the end, these elements are designed to control sunlight by creating a texture. We created a dynamic composition between transparency, shadow, light and the presentation of a heavy element suspended from the façade.
elevation 02
Exterior Insulation: Cellular concrete
We explored a material that is most use for partition walls or exterior wall. Typicallycellular concrete blocks are use for rapid construction and they create thick walls with very good performance for heat transition. However, they don’t add anything substantial to the architecture, they are use simply as a ‘filling” material.
section
We wanted to work with this material, but we needed to transform its use from a block to a slab. The1.5 Inch slab of cellular concrete was then use for an exterior finish is the building. It proves to be a good material. Added to the concrete structural walls, the cellular concrete slab has shown excellent response to the local insulation codes. It also gives an intriguing look to the exterior wall.
