Duoc Antonio Varas Building

Juan Sabbagh - Mariana Sabbag - Juan Pedro Sabbagh - Felipe Sabbagh -Marcial Olivares

Juan Sabbagh - Mariana Sabbag - Juan Pedro Sabbagh - Felipe Sabbagh -Marcial Olivares

Architects: Juan Sabbagh - Mariana Sabbag - Juan Pedro Sabbagh - Felipe Sabbagh -Marcial Olivares
Collaborators: Mario Zamorano
Location: Antonio Varas 666, Comuna Providencia, Santiago Chile
Structural Engineering: Gatica y Jiménez Ingenieros
Lighting Desing: Mónica Pérez & Asociados
Materials: Acero , hormigón,  cristal
Site Area: 9.954 m2
Built Area: 13.000 m2
Design Year: 2005
Project Year: 2006 - 2007

It is designed as a 15-storey tower which takes the shape of the patio on the ground level in its higher floors. The geometrical idea is that of a filmstrip that defines the exterior spaces and the double-height interiors through a series of continuous folds like an arabesque, which in turn creates an abstraction and concept of the foliage and branches of a tree.

The continuous filmstrip is intercepted by a grid, an orthogonal weave of pillars and beams that forms the openly exposed structural frame and supports and is part of the expressive definition of the project. The explicit display of the filmstrip is lost with the subsequent structural development of the building, leaving behind its mark in the arrangement of the filled and empty spaces present in the building.

The emptying of the built-up volume seeks to scale the building within the urban grid, creating places to view the city and allowing the continuity of views through the openings.

The floors of the building aim for maximum efficiency with a regular structural scheme of pillars arranged to facilitate the resolution of the program. The vertical cores of elevators, stairs and wet areas are located on the axis towards the south façade. This arrangement that puts the circulations and services together is reflected in the volume and the façades.

The façade siding consist of two glass skins – the first are openable windows in all the rooms to allow for natural ventilation; the second is a screen of reflective and treated glass that controls radiation and heat conduction. These weave and incline themselves like fabric, giving the façade’s vertical plane a textured character with its reflection and volumetric expression as it searches for a living image typical of an educational building that seeks to relate with the city.