Jaime Guzmán Errázuriz Memorial Project

by LIPTHAY+COHN+CONTENLA

Nicolás Lipthay Allen

Nicolás Lipthay Allen

Architects: Nicolás Lipthay Allen
Sculptor: Maria Angélica Echavarri
Collaborators: Diego Salinas - Luis de la Fuente - Daniel Barcelo
Location: Plaza Unesco, Las Condes , Santiago, Chile.
Structural Engineering: Luis Soler
Lighting Desing: Douglas Leonard
Landscaping: Juan Grimm
Materials: Mármol Travertino, acero y cristal
Site Area: 2100 mts 2
Built Area: 916 mts 2
Design Year: 2006
Project Year: 2007 - 2008

The project’s central aim was to present to the city an area to commemorate the life and work of Jaime Guzmán E, through a public extension centre and a large urban space.

Fundamental to the project’s initial thought was its singular location, a small square on the intersection of two large avenues of Santiago City.

This definition led us to think of using the below-ground level as a place to develop the program, solving the issues of acoustics and image, as what was to be shown at street level would only be the sculpture, which is the physical symbol of the memorial.

The scale of the city and the public space brings awareness to the intervening perimeter of the land as well as to the whole context. The shape and size of the project were defined by this big empty triangle that can be perceived distinctively at the street level and from the heights of nearby buildings.

There is a need to be very accurate in terms of the limits when working on a square, due to the intense and direct relationship with the street and the traffic. Hence, a decision was taken for the sculpture to be located on a plate that would isolate it from direct public contact, and at the same time, to raise it to the level of the square. The plate is a post-tensioned slab of 36 meters in length and 18 meters in width, which defines the big water feature that serves as a limit and captures the imposing image of the memorial. A perimetral metal beam forms the edge of the roof and completes all the hydraulic functioning of the water feature. The roof has an opening that allows light from the north to enter, which falls upon the wall below.