The Aulas Building / OMN Arquitectos

Pilar Caballero

8 years ago

Architects: OMN Arquitectos
Location: Avenida Vicuña Mackenna 4860, Macul, Santiago, Chile
Architect In Charge: Osvaldo Muñoz Nordenflycht
Collaborating Architects: Rodolfo Guajardo, Patricio Mancilla, Camila Díaz and Andrés Bartelsman
Area: 5800.0 m2
Project Year: 2016
Photographs: Felipe Díaz

First Stage Constructor: GHG constructora
Second Stage Constructor: CSM constructora
Structural Calculation: Soler & Asociados
Air Conditioning: Térmika
Electricity: Ingelmor
Sanitary: Juan Olcay, Héctor Valenzuela
Client: Dirección de Infraestructura, Pontificia Universidad Católica

Text description provided by the architects. The Aulas Building is located in the access park by Vicuña Mackenna of the Campus San Joaquín of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile.

At the time of projecting the building was very important the environment in which it would be located. The extensive green areas and trees of great foliage should be part of its infrastructure. For this reason, it was placed parallel to the park and facing access from an open facade.

To achieve the lightness of the north facade and thus the integration with the park, the structuring of the building was very relevant in the development of the project.

The pillars should be of small section and non-orthogonal lines so that they resemble the environment and simulate being trunks that supported the program. For this reason, the structure was composed of a braced wall to the south and concrete pillars of greater section to the north. The latter were moved away from the perimeter, to make it seem that all the charges to the north were taken by the steel pillars.

The plants are organized from a large corridor to the north and precincts that are set back from the facade to allow a panoramic view through their circulations. On the first floor are public programs, cafeteria and study hall. On the upper floors classrooms and at the underground level auditoriums.