- Architects: Felipe Assadi , Francisca Pulido
- Location: Valdivia, Valdivia, Los Ríos Region, Chile
- Collaborators: Trinidad Schönthaler, Sebastián Delpino
- Project Year: 2014
- Photographs: Fernando Alda
From the architect. Constructed among the trees of the site, the building generates two main plazas joined by the entrance to the new department. With the same height as the preexisting constructions, it reinforces the relation with the landscape, the vegetation, and the river. Designed in a “Z” shape, it shares one plaza with each of the preexisting buildings: the dean’s offices and the postgraduate studies department. This arrangement also ensured the preservation of the most important trees and provides all of the spaces with vistas and plenty of sunlight.
Given the scale of the setting, the interre- lationship of the buildings, and the very soft ground, we decided to build on only two levels, with slender piers and a base that absorbs the unevenness of the terrain.
We took inspiration from the tinplate sheds erected on the banks of the River Calle-Calle, where the building is located, and the tradi- tional architecture of southern Chile, with its walls and roofs of wooden shingles. We cre- ated a second skin, which completely covers the building, out of a synthetic “shingle” that imitates the texture and silvery-grey sheen of real shingles when they have aged naturally.
