Centro Angelini . Santiago de Chile
Alejandro Aravena + ELEMENTAL . fotos: © Nico Saieh . + archdaily
In Santiago, buildings that want to look “contemporary” have glass facades, but due to the local weather the pay-off is a huge green house effect. This building had to respond to the client’s expectation of having an innovation center with a “contemporary look”. This uncritical search for contemporariness has populated Santiago with glass towers that due to the desert climatic local condition have serious greenhouse effect in interiors.
© ELEMENTAL | Nina Vidic
© ELEMENTAL | Nina Vidic
© ELEMENTAL | Nina Vidic
So in such towers there is a huge amount of energy spent in air conditioning. The way to avoid undesired heat gains is not rocket science; it is enough to place the mass of the building on the perimeter, have recessed glasses to prevent direct sun radiation and allow for cross ventilation. By doing so one goes from 120 kw/m2/year (the consumption of a typical case of glass tower in our country) to 45kWh/m2/year.
So we reversed the typical floor plan with an opaque core and a transparent outer edge and proposed to have all the mass on the perimeter with an open permeable core. Such an opaque facade was not only energetically efficient but also helped to dim the extremely strong light that typically forces to protect interior working spaces with curtains and blinds transforming in fact, the theoretical initial transparency into a fiasco. In that sense the response to the context was nothing but the rigorous use of common sense.
The biggest threat to an innovation center is obsolescence; functional and stylistic obsolescence. So besides the professional responsibility of avoiding an extremely poor environmental performance, the rejection of the glass facade was also a search for a design that could stand the test of time. We thought the best way to fight obsolescence was to think the building as if it was an infrastructure more than an architecture. A clear, direct and even tough form is in the end the most flexible way to allow for continuous change and renewal. A rather strict geometry and strong monolithic materiality is how we thought to replace trendiness by timelessness.
Knowledge creation requires face-to-face interaction among people and to be able to witness what others are working on. In conventional buildings, meeting places tend to be only on the ground floor and while going to each level, people normally misses what is going on in other floors. So, we multiplied the meeting spaces throughout the whole height of the building using the triple height recessed windows as elevated squares. By introducing a permeable atrium at the core of the volume we also took the opportunity to use vertical circulation as a chance to learn what is going on inside.
Arquitectos: Alejandro Aravena + ELEMENTAL
Equipo: Juan Ignacio Cerda, Víctor Oddó
Colaboradores: Cristián Irarrázaval, Samuel Gonçalves, Álvaro Ascoz, Natalie Ramirez, Suyin Chia, Christian Lavista, Pedro Hoffmann
Proyecto: 2011-2012
Construcción: 2012-2013
Superficie construida: 8176 m2 (edificio) 12494 m2 (estacionamientos)
Ubicación: Campus San Joaquín, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
La innovación y creación de conocimiento requiere, por un lado, el aumento de encuentros entre personas, haciendo de la apertura visual y física un atributo deseable del diseño; por otro lado, el proceso creativo de la invención debe contar con el resguardo de la idea; por esto la privacidad constituye también una condición valorable a ser construida.
Propusimos una construcción cerrada hacia el exterior; lo que es eficiente para el clima de Santiago, con mayores demandas energéticas en verano que invierno, por ende más caro enfriar que temperar. Al interior, una arquitectura transparente construida por medio de un atrio central que relaciona visualmente los pisos y entrega luz natural. Teniendo la estructura y los ductos técnicos en el perímetro del edificio se invierte el principio de muro cortina, concentrando las aperturas en puntos específicos en la forma de terrazas elevadas.
Alejandro Aravena + ELEMENTAL . fotos: © Nico Saieh . + archdaily
In Santiago, buildings that want to look “contemporary” have glass facades, but due to the local weather the pay-off is a huge green house effect. This building had to respond to the client’s expectation of having an innovation center with a “contemporary look”. This uncritical search for contemporariness has populated Santiago with glass towers that due to the desert climatic local condition have serious greenhouse effect in interiors.
© ELEMENTAL | Nina Vidic
© ELEMENTAL | Nina Vidic
© ELEMENTAL | Nina Vidic
So in such towers there is a huge amount of energy spent in air conditioning. The way to avoid undesired heat gains is not rocket science; it is enough to place the mass of the building on the perimeter, have recessed glasses to prevent direct sun radiation and allow for cross ventilation. By doing so one goes from 120 kw/m2/year (the consumption of a typical case of glass tower in our country) to 45kWh/m2/year.
So we reversed the typical floor plan with an opaque core and a transparent outer edge and proposed to have all the mass on the perimeter with an open permeable core. Such an opaque facade was not only energetically efficient but also helped to dim the extremely strong light that typically forces to protect interior working spaces with curtains and blinds transforming in fact, the theoretical initial transparency into a fiasco. In that sense the response to the context was nothing but the rigorous use of common sense.
The biggest threat to an innovation center is obsolescence; functional and stylistic obsolescence. So besides the professional responsibility of avoiding an extremely poor environmental performance, the rejection of the glass facade was also a search for a design that could stand the test of time. We thought the best way to fight obsolescence was to think the building as if it was an infrastructure more than an architecture. A clear, direct and even tough form is in the end the most flexible way to allow for continuous change and renewal. A rather strict geometry and strong monolithic materiality is how we thought to replace trendiness by timelessness.
Knowledge creation requires face-to-face interaction among people and to be able to witness what others are working on. In conventional buildings, meeting places tend to be only on the ground floor and while going to each level, people normally misses what is going on in other floors. So, we multiplied the meeting spaces throughout the whole height of the building using the triple height recessed windows as elevated squares. By introducing a permeable atrium at the core of the volume we also took the opportunity to use vertical circulation as a chance to learn what is going on inside.
Arquitectos: Alejandro Aravena + ELEMENTAL
Equipo: Juan Ignacio Cerda, Víctor Oddó
Colaboradores: Cristián Irarrázaval, Samuel Gonçalves, Álvaro Ascoz, Natalie Ramirez, Suyin Chia, Christian Lavista, Pedro Hoffmann
Proyecto: 2011-2012
Construcción: 2012-2013
Superficie construida: 8176 m2 (edificio) 12494 m2 (estacionamientos)
Ubicación: Campus San Joaquín, Universidad Católica de Chile, Santiago, Chile
La innovación y creación de conocimiento requiere, por un lado, el aumento de encuentros entre personas, haciendo de la apertura visual y física un atributo deseable del diseño; por otro lado, el proceso creativo de la invención debe contar con el resguardo de la idea; por esto la privacidad constituye también una condición valorable a ser construida.
Propusimos una construcción cerrada hacia el exterior; lo que es eficiente para el clima de Santiago, con mayores demandas energéticas en verano que invierno, por ende más caro enfriar que temperar. Al interior, una arquitectura transparente construida por medio de un atrio central que relaciona visualmente los pisos y entrega luz natural. Teniendo la estructura y los ductos técnicos en el perímetro del edificio se invierte el principio de muro cortina, concentrando las aperturas en puntos específicos en la forma de terrazas elevadas.
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