The 2015 earthquake that struck the Coquimbo region in Chile resulted in the relocation of 88 households from the Baquedano sector to safe zones. Consequently, the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism (MINVU), through SERVIU, launched a call for proposals to design public rental housing complexes based on general design, energy efficiency, and social participation criteria.
The team composed of Fundación Urbanismo Social and Cristián Fernández Arquitectos won first place in the competition, followed by the proposal submitted by TECHO + Sabbagh Arquitectos. The winning proposal includes a community-support plan that, alongside the construction of public spaces and social housing with mitigation measures, aims to provide displaced families with a safe space to settle and rebuild a sense of community.
The Master Plan for the Housing Complex Regeneration Program (2019), which laid the foundation for the subsequent projects, mainly aims to address the housing needs of populations located in high-risk zones. To mitigate impact and prepare both infrastructure and the community for potential natural disasters, the Master Plan includes a portfolio of projects ranging from the design of the El Culebrón Wetland Mitigation Park to the development of tsunami-resilient buildings, such as the "Los Fundadores" social integration complex, which broke ground in 2019.
Below, the teams of Fundación Urbanismo Social + Cristián Fernández Arquitectos, followed by TECHO + Sabbagh Arquitectos, describe their proposals in their own words:
Fundación Urbanismo Social / Cristián Fernández Arquitectos
Integration: The two blocks are conceived as a single project, separated only by a small-scale, dead-end road. This allows us to design these two projects autonomously while generating a positive synergy for the residents. The buildings placed along the perimeter configure a large, protected, and sunlit private interior space. This area hosts community recreation spaces equipped with plazas, trees, vegetation, and playgrounds to strengthen neighborhood life.
This layout fosters integration and collaboration among residents, in line with the city's finest urban values. The two buildings function independently, each with its own entrances, parking, technical equipment, and interior circulation. It is the common spaces, such as the Elevated Plaza, that generate this morphological unity.
Urban Planning: The buildings are arranged as a continuous, six-story facade. Priority was given to a uniform height and facade scheme, providing unity and identity to the housing complex within the city. The first two levels are more open and transparent than the upper facades. Additionally, along Baquedano Street, we incorporated a canopy over the sidewalk and two urban spaces with amenities and trees on the corners to contribute to the public realm. The complex easily resolves the significant elevation differences between Juan Antonio Ríos and Baquedano streets, creating entrances at different levels that converge into a large, shared Elevated Plaza.
Architecture: The complex is designed with maximum resource efficiency, which is essential to make this type of project viable. Common spaces, stairs, and circulation paths have been designed for high efficiency, avoiding single-sided corridors.
The complex is organized like a ring-shaped (“picarón”) building, creating a large, protected interior courtyard onto which the apartments not facing the street are oriented. This space is organized on two levels, leaving the ground level to accommodate all the required parking. Above this parking level, we designed an elevated courtyard where the buildings share a large, private, secure, and equipped elevated plaza for recreation.
Green Areas: Despite the large footprint required for parking and the buildings, we have successfully integrated tree-lined green spaces in strategic locations for viewing and use. We chose to plant trees in the Central Plaza because they will benefit from excellent sunlight and natural soil while being protected from excess sea salt. On the corners of the project, we propose medium-scale trees and shrubbery.”
Fundación TECHO-Chile / Sabbagh Arquitectos
The proposal seeks to redefine the neighborhood to trigger other physical, spatial, functional, symbolic, and relational transformations, integrating into the environment through the creation of new services. The intervention recognizes the potential and vulnerability of the territory, transforming these geographical conditions into an asset for both social and spatial approaches.
This spatial redefinition stems from the need to establish greater coherence with the geographic conditions of the site. This unlocks the potential of its location, such as its proximity to downtown, its connection to the coastline, the El Culebrón wetland, and the hills, as well as the visual relationships built with these local features.
From a spatial and structural standpoint, a solution was developed to withstand tsunami threats through a post-and-beam structure. This design also provides greater flexibility in spatial layout, allowing adaptation to community needs throughout the regeneration process. Additionally, a faster evacuation system is created, consisting of a pedestrian network that pedestrianizes Chacabuco Street, transforming it into a meeting point within the block. Through this intervention, the proposal introduces public-oriented spaces, forming a super-block that connects both projects at street level. It transforms their layout with a large, open, and flexible public space—functioning as a multi-purpose fairground—that evolves and consolidates over time.
The buildings located in blocks C1 and C2 are organized along the longitudinal axis around an interior courtyard. This lightwell centralizes the circulation paths leading to each of the homes, which are housed in two parallel north-south residential blocks. Block C1 includes 100 rental units, while Block C2 includes 72 units under the DS49 housing program. At the ends of the upper-floor corridors (floors 3 to 6) along the longitudinal axis, "viewpoints" offer perspective views of the city and the coastline running parallel to the blocks. On the roof level of both complexes, a shared space is proposed for community use, featuring vegetable gardens, viewpoints, and landscaped areas. The incorporation of rooftop terraces also serves as a safe zone—a shelter area enabling vertical evacuation, thereby contributing to the site's resilience.
This article was written by Luciana Truffa. The translation is powered by AI.
