Ministerio del Trabajo, construido entre 1969 y 1970. Ubicación: Huérfanos esq. Teatinos, Santiago. Arquitectos: Emilio Duhart H., Alberto Montealegre B., Sergio Risopatrón R. / Ministry of Labor, built between 1969 and 1970. Location: Huérfanos and Teatinos Streets, Santiago. Architects: Emilio Duhart H., Alberto Montealegre B., Sergio R. Risopatrón
The Duhart proposal The influence of his studies at Harvard and the figure of Walter Gropius were reflected in the openness of Emilio Duhart to American architecture by the end of World War II, and a similar influence will be exerted later by the European mainstream then led by Corbusier. The connection through friendships and American publications will allow him to propose architecture with clear conceptual bases. Understanding the language of high technology, the preliminary design for the Ministry of Labor comes from the triangulation by concrete diagonals in plan and elevation. It is possible to go back to the very meaning of the material as well as the sense of the building to establish an initial connection with the project for the American Institute of Concrete by architect Louis Kahn (1957), a building 190 meters high which proposed an avant-garde use of concrete. In the text Labor, Work and Architecture, Frampton refers to “Louis Kahn and the French connection” analyzing the influence of Paul Philippe Cret on Kahn, precisely in relation to the meaning and use of the material in the proposed new language in architecture. He keeps a base in French Classicism, mutating into a Structural Rationalism, the latter based on the text “ Vers Une Architecture” by Corbusier. Another important benchmark for the use of high technology will be the building for the Engineering Laboratories at the University of Leicester in England (1959), by architects James Stirling and James Gowan.
The Leicester building is a sort of cluster of articulated bodies, dominated by two buildings which can be read individually. The larger building becomes a landmark on campus. This main tower is a body that may be divided into three parts: the first is a table-like structure with five story high columns that support the glass tower. Between the tower and the structural table lies a discordant geometric body which houses the auditorium program. Drawing a parallel with the Ministry of Labor Building by Duhart, this one also features a double height table structure that supports the tower. In both cases the ending detail of the column with its base as a structural joint is clear. The Ministry outsources the program of the auditorium to the side along Teatinos street, in keeping with the unified perception of the project.
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