ten 7.50 × 6.65m dwellings and five 4.70 × 13.60m one-story apartments. This modality reduces the vertical routes and therefore the number of elevator stops to six stops over fifteen floors and concentrates five apartment accesses at each point of the layout grouping (four apart- ments at mid-level and one at level). This allows for better functional and environmental zoning of the units, differentiating the living areas from the sleeping areas, with a shorter circulation path between both levels. The grouping system is created by alternating the units in two parallel bays, linked by the vertical circulation that runs parallel to the distribution corridor of the standard floor plan. The result is a structural grid composed of rigid slabs supported by a central core of reinforced concrete, which is clearly expressed in the blocks' staggered volumetry. Other distinctive aspects of the project are the incorporation of apartments on the first floor -associated with landscaped intermediate spaces that grade the relationship with the public space-, the strategic location of the accesses and vertical circulations emphasizing permea- bility at the urban level, and the detailed construction and finishing work to singularize the complex's different components. In short, the Remodelación República synthesizes a large part of CORVI's quest to build a more inclusive and sustainable city, capable of high-density interventions without sacrificing urban space quality and the habitability of the dwellings. More than five decades after its construction, the complex maintains its architectural, urban, and social values intact, and has established itself as a benchmark for new regen- eration projects in pericentral areas. Conclusions The work of the Housing Corporation (CORVI) between the 1950s and 1970s constitutes a fundamental chapter in the history of urban and housing development in Chile. Beyond the extraordinary productivity achieved during that period, its main accomplishment was to establish collective housing and neighborhood regeneration as problems of national interest, laying the foundation for a housing policy that would last for decades. The cases of the Luis Thayer Ojeda and Remodelación República buildings, examined in this article, exemplify the maturity reached by the CORVI architectural teams towards the end of the 1960s. In both
complexes, what was conceived as a search for a unit that tries to adopt the best living conditions concerning its orientation, grows and expresses itself in an architectural richness that reveals an integral concept of resi- dential housing. In addition, the housing typologies, the incorporation of community and commercial uses, and the treatment of the intermediate spaces combine to create vital urban environments on a human scale. The management of aspects such as structural and constructive rationalization, controlled formal expressiveness, and the concern for creating housing units with great flexibility and dimensional standards, have made it possible for the buildings to adapt to the changes expe- rienced by families and lifestyles in the last half century, also stand out. This has made it possible that, unlike many housing complexes from that period -affected by problems of functional obsolescence or material deterioration-, CORVI's projects are still in full force and have achieved a heritage value that far transcends their architectural significance, becom- ing true construction symbols of a more democratic and equitable city. ! Sebastián Navarrete Michelini An architect from Universidad Mayor (1999). A Master´s (2002) and PhD (2012) from Universidad Politécnica de Cataluña. An Associate Professor from the School of Architecture at Universidad Mayor. His professional work is connected to offices of public and private work, heritage, education, and services. In Chile, he works with Claudio Navarrete Arquitectos and Gonzalo Mardones Arquitectos. In Spain, he works with Ona Architectes and MBM Architectes. His most important work is the restoration of the MAC in Santiago de Chile. He is part of the independent publication www.coleccioninsitu.com, which he produces together with architect José Quintanilla Chala. Pablo Altikes Pinilla An architect from Universidad Central de Chile. A PhD from Universidad de Sevilla, Spain. He has written several books and published articles nationally and internationally. He has lectured at several national and international universities. He has participated in different roles in five Chilean architecture biennials. He has been a delegate in three Iberoamerican biennials. He was a career director at Universidad del Desarrollo, Concepción. He was a vice- president for the Chilean Association of Architects and AOA Director for the Association of Architects Offices.
WORKS
From the beginning, and out of environmental responsibility, it was clear to us that this Pavilion should be able to be disassembled and transportable to a new location, thus extending its useful life beyond the Expo's six-month period. We chose laminated wood as the material to build with and charac- terize the Pavilion. In addition to its evident sensory and tectonic value, this material appeals to a renewable and valuable resource in the envi- ronmental chain of birth and perishability. On the other hand, glulam, being an industrialized material, offered us a homogeneous quality and adequate technical control, along with the possibility of building a Meccano that could be disassembled and reassembled elsewhere. The Chilean Pavilion was conceived as a reticulated skeleton that envelops a wooden box inside which different activities related to the exhibition take place. This box rests, like a bridge, on six inverted steel tripods. In this way the ground was freed, reducing the impact on the terrain and incorporating the urban hustle and bustle inside a temperate horizon, typical of Mediterranean architecture that took root in central Chile as a result of Spanish influence in America. The verisimilitude of the diagonalized structure, to which the specific character of this Pavilion was entrusted, made it possible to bring a syn- thesis of physical and structural forms together. The box´s rationality imposed a flexible interior that favored new uses. 01_ EXPO MILANO 2015 / TEMUCO 2016 PAVILION
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