The assignment consisted in the design of an apartment building with 28 units up for sale in an eminently residential area of Providencia district. To densify, the regulation demands an isolated volume of a maximum of 12 stories, with no first-floor dwellings allowed.
As the central axis of the proposal, the project seeks to link itself to the tradition of modern medium-density housing, which in the Providencia district has had a splendid development since the middle of the last century. First, in its relationship with the public space, it gives the strip of the front garden to the street and defines a transparent and open access hall, integrating itself with the city. In terms of height, an effort was made to use only 8 of the 12 floors allowed by the regulation. To incorporate the required constructability, the building is cantilevered 2.5 meters from the ground floor up, maximizing the occupation of the upper floors and freeing up the first level. The last two floors are set back to respond to demands in the regulation. The above operations allow for a transparent and light building on the ground floor, with a volume up to the 6th stories that is then recessed into a single volume, clad in wood, reducing the perception of its height.
The floor plan of the building, very close to a square, is divided into four quadrants, four corner apartments with double orientation and two small elevator lobbies connected by the staircase that occupies the center of the floor, allowing to have only 2 apartments per elevator. With this configuration, which allows apartments with a large perimeter, we seek to rescue another of the spatial qualities that characterized the Providencia apartments of the 60s and 70s, living and dining spaces that are arranged parallel to the facade, and allow a large front of natural light and views. Another important point is the definition of terraces integrated into the volume, with proportions that allows its active use, which extends the front of the living-dining rooms and is linked to the hallways, bringing them natural light. Structurally, to achieve the overhang of the volume from the second floor up, a perimeter beam was incorporated, which is taken perpendicularly by flag type walls that descend to the lower floors and form the four quadrants.
In terms of the façade, the building proposes a base that steps back on the ground floor, a 5-story body in which the horizontals are accentuated, with a continuous parapet beam, and a recessed strip with respect to the beam that approaches the idea of a continuous window combining windows and some wooden planes; to finish with a wooden body that steps back on two levels to which the corners are cut to accentuate the 5-story body and the perception of recessing, taking away volumetric weight. This corner cutout is curved, giving a certain grace and fluidity to the silhouette of the building against the sky.
The materiality of the building seeks to highlight the three layers of the volume; the ground floor highlights its transparency with glass enclosures; the intermediate floors accentuate the horizontality of the perimeter beam, with a king yellow handrail, and between these is a continuous solution of recessed windows and planes clad with thermo-treated wood that contrast their natural color with the concrete beams painted in graphite. The last two recessed levels are clad in the same wood to accentuate the differentiation with respect to the volume confined by the beams but tied to the continuous solution located in the background on the lower floors.
Team:
Client: Inmobiliaria Altura
Construction company: Constructora Magna
Architects: Francisco Izquierdo and Rodrigo Duque Motta
Photographer: Nicolas Saieh, Rodrigo Duque
