Facultad de Arquitectura, Arte y Diseño, Universidad Diego Portales.

Barrio República, Santiago. First Prize. Built

Designing the extension building of the faculty in this place supposes, at the same time as a challenge due to the necessary economy of means with which to work, an exceptional opportunity to bring together the arts and architecture. We imagine that the objective should be to create places where people can study the different techniques here and at the same time enjoy the works of art on display, so that the educational factor of the center makes sense to the architecture project. Our project aims to function as a mere support for experimentation and artistic learning.

The school we propose proposes a sustainable growth over time, discriminating between existing structures, demolishing what lacks value to replace it with new rooms and recycling a large part of what has been built, transforming the latter into the heart of the project. In this first stage, it is proposed to condense the program of classrooms in a new building of three levels in height, transforming the rest of the space under the existing roofs into programmatic covered patios: The access patio is intended for the exhibition of exercises of the whole school, an ever-changing exhibition.

The location strategy seeks to resolve three points that we have considered decisive:

Constitute a front facing the street, both due to the need to build an enclosure and limit the campus as well as to raise an institutional presence within the context of the university neighborhood, taking advantage of the building as a showcase on the street, where the auditorium is located .
Minimize construction costs by taking advantage of existing structures for those programs that do not need acoustic and / or insulation requirements.
Relate the project to its immediate context. Taking advantage of the great void under the roofs of the old garage, the project proposes to show the daily work of the school to the República neighborhood through the patio of the arts. The program is the one that defines the limits of this space, which is turned into the exhibition courts -introspection / exhibition-.

The project appears under the cloak of the old structures, providing a place as a field for plastic production and allowing a more open dialogue between the arts and the city.