It should not be forgotten that in those years the cost and maintenance of these elevators were very high. The blocks are divided into four equivalent parts according to the standard floor plan. The central ones are established with a central cor- ridor structure and six dwellings: three to the east and three to the west. The groupings of dwellings at the ends also have a central corridor, two dwellings facing east, two facing west, and the head of each end with an apartment facing either north or south, depending on the location. Three vertical circulation cores, arranged around a first central core with stairs and elevators, which define the main access to the block, connect these four parts. The next two cores are located to the sides and have only stairs, one to the north and the other to the south, equally spaced. The stair and elevator core define the arrangement of apartments by section, creating a standard floor plan with elevator stops every four floors, reducing its utilization. The elevator arrives at a floor corridor that goes up and down half a level, allowing it to deliver to two overlapping horizontal circulations. Each circulation leads to apartments by band. The first-floor distribution is established, with the corridor in the center of the block that leads to two apartments on each side. One of them is at the corridor level, which arranges its program of enclosures towards a single facade orientation. The other is located above or below the corridor. This is accessed through a distribution corridor that connects to an internal staircase of the apartment, which rises or descends ac- cording to the overlap of the layout grouping. The apartment arranges its enclosure program in a double bay, first to a living-dining-kitchen and service bedroom program, and on its next level to the bedroom and bathroom program. This order is configured in an alternating manner, as expressed in the layout, allowing for their orientation towards the east and west fronts. This is how to understand the base layout of the block, a grouping system that explains and optimizes the logic of vertical arrangement. On both the west and east fronts, the residential unit is developed within a rectangular profile of 4.70 × 10.30m, using the corridor walls as a transversal axis that structures the block along its longitudinal axis. A single module is established in the load-bearing structure, which systematizes the construction system. The vertical grouping configuration establishes different dynamics for each dwelling. Those at the corridor level with a single orientation, and the dwellings on the upper levels or below the corridor with a dou- ble orientation. Clearly, the latter is favored in terms of the typological scheme by the duality of sunlight, but also by allowing cross ventilation for the unit. Executive Project The final project, completed in 1968, consists of two linear blocks fifteen stories high, containing its housing program from the ground floor. The blocks are arranged parallel to each other on the north-south axis of the site because of the property´s unification, thanks to the removal of the interior streets. The buildings contain 282 apartments between 85 and 90 m2, all with a double east-west orientation and the possibility of accommodating between five and seven beds. The blocks are arranged out of phase, freeing up the corner of Repúbli- ca Avenue and Gay Street to form a large community space that includes tree-lined areas, pedestrian walkways, and a plaza elevated above semi-buried commercial spaces. The relationship with the surroundings is entrusted to the controlled opening of the perimeter, the location of accesses at the two vertical circulation cores of the blocks, the visual integration of the ground level through the transparent interior halls, and the facades' expressiveness, in particular the building heads. The apartment typology is modified concerning the competition in a half-level or Splint-Level system, which constitutes the basis for the structural and formal part of the project. The standard floor plan groups
with one and two-story dwellings, oriented east and west. The blocks are parallel to each other and appear to be the same. The arrangement of the blocks establishes a correct relationship between the distance and the void between blocks, and the street between them. In this way, the objective is to free up as much land as possible to be used for neighborhood amenities and patio and plaza areas. The complex's configuration is defined by the location of the blocks. One is located on the southeast front of the site, next to República and Blanco Avenues. The following one is located towards the northwest side, thus allowing the area to be open towards the corner of República and Gay Streets. It buffers the appearance of a high morphology of the heritage axis, and this profile appears almost when reaching Blanco Avenue and, therefore, gives the tall structure the idea of a finishing touch towards the nearby Club Hípico from a pedestrian point of view [1]. The most significant block is the one next to República Street, which adapts its first floor to the urban situation. It establishes the north front as a relevant factor and, therefore, the complex's image from República to Blanco. To this end, the block frees up half of the first level mass, es- tablishing a free floor plan based on pillars that expand and extend to the park area towards República. It is defined by the crossing of Domeyko Street and forms a square plaza that gradually integrates with the street, creating a public space conceived as a park open to the neighborhood. The latter is established between blocks, delimited by a commercial equipment plate defined on one level and with an irregular shape. This way, the corner is spatially liberated and takes on a different appearance, green and tree-lined. This provides a new image of the neighborhood's traditional character, composed of a texture of continuous two- and three-story facades, except for República Street, which is defined as an axis of isolated buildings. The eastern block drops to the ground with the entire volume mass. On its western front, it establishes a limit to the central plaza, defining a green area between it and its other facade that protects the first-floor housing and establishes a north-south circulation. This gives some visual continuity to Echaurren Street, joins Domeyko and Gay Streets, and connects to the block's accesses. The eastern front establishes a service area between the volume and the dividing wall. The complex is conceived as a permeable terrain, open to pedestrian traffic, but with a graded permeability between openly public areas -yards and a commercial block- and common areas for residents, such as the central plaza and the gardens between blocks. For this purpose, certain enclosures are insinuated to the west, the geometry of the commercial equipment block is adjusted to the north (see competition perspective), and with partial enclosures to the south-east along Echaurren and Blanco streets (see the first-floor plan, competition). As a result of intensifying the housing height density as a basic requirement, the relationship with a dense residential fabric, almost entirely with a continuous facade and two to three floors, makes it necessary to establish scalar variables of fullness and emptiness. The approach of a single block type, which is adjusted and repeated in two units, provides order and economy to the complex's definition. However, the optimization of the housing unit is equally relevant, both in the unit and in its horizontal and vertical grouping system. A vertical housing grouping system complements the rationality of the standard floor plan. This is reflected in the study of a functional and spatial system represented in the layout. The objective of this is to give the blocks greater density in height and that the housing typology reduces the vertical and horizontal circulations per floor in order to adjust their distribution to each floor access, a variable that will help us to think of housing with new spatial and functional characteristics in the section. The elevator stops occur at the stair level, going up and down half a floor to reach the distribution corridors, and establishing the elevator stops at four points for the fourteen floors. In this way, the stops are optimized and therefore the potential maintenance of these elevators is reduced.
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