Huechuraba Campus

Rafael Hevia, Rodrigo Duque Motta and Gabriela Manzi designed the Economics and Business Faculty of the Diego Portales University (Chile) creating an academic identity thanks to a structure with weight that speaks of permanence and stability.

The project is the result of the competition for the revision of the new Huechuraba Campus master plan, and the definition of the project for its first phase, the Economics and Business Faculty of the Diego Portales University.

The site is located at the foot of San Cristobal hill, sloping and slightly raised above the Huechuraba valley. With the location of the new campus, the Faculty seeks to build a strong link between its academic development and the professional reality, as it is at one of the most important business centers in the city.

From the architectural point of view, this presented the challenge of asserting an academic identity in an environment governed by very different rules. Amid buildings that are mostly for office rental, glass boxes lacking a clear identity and designed with a short term logic, the project wanted to build a contrast, a structure with weight that speaks of permanence and stability, to accompany the university in its long-range commitment and transcendence.

Rafael Hevia, Rodrigo Duque Motta, Gabriela Manzi, Economics and Business Faculty, Diego Portales University, Santa Clara, Huechuraba, Santiago Metropolitan Region, Chile

The density of the volumes, the concrete that lasts and ages, walls to be covered with vines showing the passing of the seasons, a park that matures in years and stone courtyards, combine to consolidate over time. In addition, the project seeks to build a connection beyond its neighbors, with its geographic environment. It takes advantage of the slope to render the courtyards dominant over the territory, and builds terraces at different heights, as well as a roof garden, that connects the everyday life of the project with the distant geography, San Cristobal hill, and Huechuraba valley. These are places that link leisure time with the surrounding landscape.

The proposed master plan combines four elements for the construction of the project, defining a section in the direction of the slope. The project of the faculty, as a first stage of the total, includes these four elements, advancing in its definition: a basement formed by a linear succession of horizontal planes that builds the courtyards of intensive use, as balconies over the Huechuraba landscape, which houses the public programs of the university; a large, eight level continuous bar, with neutral architecture, acts as a backdrop against the hill and houses the system of regular classrooms, which require more modular flexibility; on the base, and in front of the bar, the master plan proposes a series of unique buildings that dialogue with the neutrality of the bar, establishing a scenic figure-ground relationship; finally, a park is defined on the lower area of the site that is intertwined with the base. It builds a safe distance with the existing urban area, and offers an extensive sports program.

The project is designed from the architecture, landscape, and technical facilities, in terms of savings in energy and water, minimizing its impact on the environment, and insuring high standards of comfort for its occupants.