Simonetti Office Building

by Alejandro Simonetti, Cristian Undurraga

Architects: Cristian Undurraga - Alejandro Simonetti.
Collaborators: Orlando Etcheberrigaray, Mario Marchant.
Location: Las Condes, Santiago, Chile.
General Contractor: Simonetti Constructora
Structural Engineering: Dinamica Ingenieria
Landscaping: Juan Grimm
Materials: Hormigón, cristal, panel cuarzo
Electrical Project:
Site Area: 1.941,00 m2
Built Area: 5.363,94 m2
Design Year: 2003
Project Year: 2005
Photographs: Guy Wenborne

The El Golf neighborhood of Santiago was founded in the beginning of the second half of the 20th Century, faithful to the strategy of a “garden city”. Presidente Errázuriz Avenue in the heart of the neighborhood has been kept out of the transformation, and a glimpse of the splendour that once characterized this zone can be seen on it.

On the western edge of this small avenue, an oddity exists between a small 3-story building built in the founding period of the neighbourhood and another 4-story one representative of modernity at the end of the 60s. Between them, a housing development of little heritage value had given way to a site where this 5-story office building has been built.

Within the north façade, a risky arrangement of a transparent module stands out on the urban landscape from the inside and adds melody to the composition on the outside. Towards the south, the calm and reflected light on the façade justifies the presence of less quartz panels on the internal curve of the building, and the transparency of the façade.

The quartz allows light into the interior in the same rapid way that alabaster can evoke archaic architectures. The artificial night light from the interior returns to the city the light that was given it during the day.

Faced with the horizontal simplicity of the open office layout, a 3-dimensional lobby was proposed, where the stairway takes central stage.