In its first stage, CORVI used the Neighborhood Unit model to de- velop housing complexes on the outskirts of large cities. This type of intervention, large in scale and extension, was conceived as relatively self-sufficient complexes that incorporated community services and generous green areas for common use. Some outstanding examples from this period are the Unidad Vecinal Providencia (1953-65), Villa Portales (1954-64), Exequiel González Cortés (Villa Olímpica, 1960-64) and Villa Presidente Frei (1964-68). However, the peripheral densification, associated with the fact that the city of Santiago had a defined urban limit, caused a growing shortage of urban land. In addition, the difficulty of the Employee Funds to acquire large areas in the periphery and CORVI's legal inability to expropriate new land made the implementation of residential complexes under the Neighborhood Unit model increasingly unfeasible. At the same time, there was concern about the progressive deterioration and depopulation of the city's pericentral areas. In response to this new urban reality, CORVI began to promote an alternative strategy, Remodeling, aimed at intervening and re-densify- ing neighborhoods that were deteriorating near historic centers. This approach sought to adapt the Neighborhood Units' design principles to a smaller scale, making their integration into the pre-existing urban fabric feasible. Remodeling, which was created in response to new problems arising in consolidated city areas, resulted in an urban reinterpretation under different historical and morphological variables of urban intervention in pericentral areas. Sub-Department Correlation of the Provident Fund Within the CORVI units, the Sub-Department Correlation of the Provident Fund corresponded to the project workshop that received the highest standard residential commissions. Twenty-one architects made up the workshop's structure, with architect Enrique Casorzo as head of the Sub-Department and architect Iván Godoy as head of Studies. It was in that workshop that the following two projects were developed. We consider it pertinent to clarify that this unit may be understood as a project office, where the projects developed there, were signed by the intellectual authors; but where groups defined for their executive record carried out the technical development of each project. This way of working was established as a regular practice in that office and was confirmed in interviews with Orlando Sepúlveda. However, from these same interviews, it was determined that certain projects were associated with specific individuals' project concerns. Two of the most outstanding projects developed by CORVI under the Remodeling typology were the Luis Thayer Ojeda and Remodelación República buildings, both located in the Santiago district. The Luis Thayer Ojeda Building Location: Luis Thayer Ojeda Nº43, on the corner of Providencia Avenue. The Providencia Community, Metropolitan Region. Client: Caja Nacional de E.E.P.P. y P.P. The Ministry of Public Works ap- proved the project on 06-06-1963 by the National Director of Architecture from the Ministry of Public Works Edwin Weil Wohlke. CORVI Architects: Vicente Bruna + German Wijnant + Orlando Sepúlveda + Gastón Godoy + Jaime Perelman. The Luis Thayer Ojeda Building was commissioned to CORVI by the Public Employees Fund and assigned mostly to teachers. Its design and construction took place between 1962 and 1968. It is located on a 2,565- m2 site on the corner of Providencia and Luis Thayer Ojeda Avenues, in an area that combines residential and commercial uses. The complex, with 7,460 m2 of GFA (gross floor area), is formed in a "C" that closes the north, east, and south fronts of the site. This figure is subdivided into two areas, residential and commercial. The residential area is composed of
MODERN MOVEMENT
THE VALUE OF THE HOUSING CORPORATION (CORVI) IN EXPLORING AND TRANSFORMING RESIDENTIAL HOUSING IN CHILE. TWO CASE STUDIES.
Author: Sebastián Navarrete Michelini Collaborator : Pablo Altikes Pinilla
The purpose of this article is to highlight the work developed by the Housing Corporation (CORVI) in Chile from the 1950s to the late 1970s. Through the analysis of two emblematic residential projects -the Luis Thayer Ojeda and Remodelación República buildings, both located in Santiago- we intend to show the development of a good residential habitat. In addition, how the experimentation in defining it, demonstrates the fundamental role that the work of this state entity played in the transformation and improvement of collective housing in our country. The information presented comes both from the author's research sources and from interviews with architect Orlando Sepúlveda, who was a member of the project's design teams, constituting a valuable testimonial about this key period in the history of Chilean residential architecture. CORVI in State Modernization Beginning in the 1950s, Chile underwent a profound process to modernize the state apparatus. In the housing sector, one of the most significant innovations was the creation of the Housing Corporation (CORVI) in 1953, an entity under the Ministry of Public Works whose mission was to implement the National Housing Plan, within an administrative reform framework based on the rationalization of public resource use. Among the multiple functions assigned to CORVI were: cooperating in designing the Housing Plan; acquiring, urbanizing, and subdividing land; planning and building affordable housing; granting loans for their con- struction; carrying out public and social infrastructure projects; promoting research of materials and construction techniques; and even selling or leasing housing units to ensure financing for the Corporation's work. CORVI was structured around various technical sub-departments, among them the Project Workshops, organized according to the coun- try's different climatic zones and beneficiaries' different socioeconom- ic profiles. A large part of its work was oriented to meet the housing requirements for the Public and Private Employees' Funds, known as EMPART, throughout Chile.
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