La Puntilla Gallery Open City, 1995
It is a gesture to show Hospitality, the first commandment of the Open City. It has been called gallery due to its proportion, with a predominating length of more than 15 m. It can accommodate two guests without intermediate divisions. This small wooden volume is a good example of a work done “in circle”: architects and designers of the School and a workman for the service installations. Each one was interested in the aspects most relevant to their concerns. Fabio Cruz began by proposing an elongated parti 3 m wide with yards in front, closed with thin brick walls built by a mason. They enclose an intimate space amid the vastness, with the distant horizon of the sea. The group believed in one single space, so both the bathroom and kitchen (stove) were installed in the center so as not to interrupt the unity of the gallery, the only space. This was accomplished by sinking the bathroom volume to make it appear barely as a cabinet, with a countertop, sink and electric stove. Once the foundations were set with their terraces and enclosed courtyards, the team interested in the wooden building came in: by age, architects Alberto Cruz, Miguel Eyquem, David Jolly, Patricio Cáraves, David Luza, Iván Ivelic, César Chávez, Rodrigo Cepeda, Ricardo Quiroga, and designers Ricardo Lang, Arturo Chicano and Juan Carlos Jeldes. We began by making the wooden box with one side fully open, the gallery facing west, interrupted in the middle by the bathroom, an installation in itself. My preferences were: - The picture window designed like a stained glass window (with aluminum profiles pleated by us). - The ceiling is curved to configure a storm water channel. Alberto said to me, “this can’t be a shack ... we have to think about the roof.” - The end pieces on both sides of the gallery: equal but reversed. These three elements spatially control the light. The 15 m window was a section of the volume. If the roof were symmetrical it would be the valley on the axis of the volume. By turning this axis towards the diagonal for reasons of solar orientation, the window rises with a curve. It reaches its greatest height on the southwest corner right on the south end, picking up the afternoon sun, the most desirable on this coast. Alberto worked particularly with pen and paper in his notebook. He wrote down our workmen discussions, the light calculations. He drew the proposals we talked about to study and then suggested solutions. Among the many delicacies that came up in the course of construction there were things like this. A few added eave rafters appeared over the western stained glass window. On their north facing sides a few small mirrors were placed, oriented to send their rays towards certain areas of color. These resemble flattened pyramids, presenting different angles to the light of the sky. The gallery is located on a mound, above the level of the Inn on La Puntilla. To enter it’s necessary to climb a floor. Two parallel brick stairs were made: one goes from the outside directly to the end piece and after crossing the door continues rising on the inside. The other, on the right, has a longer spread and remains on the outside. Its steps are progressive, changing pace; therefore the longer the stride the faster, until reaching the terrace, the patios and entering through the window. Both stairs follow the window on one or the other side, while the window follows both of them simultaneously with its stained glass rhythm.
Construcción cielo de doble curvatura. / Construction of the double curva- ture ceiling.
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