THE CHILEAN CASE: OCHOALCUBO Almost half a century later and with the arrival of democracy in 1990, Chilean architects began to propose a new path for cities that were expanding and clients who were asking for a second home. It was at a meeting in a bar in the Bellavista neighborhood, where - just as Entenza and Charles Eames did in their time - Eduardo Godoy and Mathias Klotz discussed and conceived the Ochoalcubo project. ⁴ Christián de Groote joined them later. The site chosen for the eight houses would be a subdivision in the Marbella urban development, on the central coast of the country. They decided that Klotz would choose three young architects with enormous talent and de Groote three established professionals, thus forming a team of eight architects to develop what would be the first stage. The young architects were Mathias Klotz, Sebastián Irarrázaval, Cecilia Puga, and Smiljan Radic, and the established architects were José Cruz Ovalle, Christian de Groote, Teodoro Fernández, and Cristián Valdés. The team was joined by architect and landscape architect Juan Grimm to articulate the eight projects through landscape work. The architectural commission was a 250 m ² house with a program of 3-4 bedrooms, 3-4 bathrooms, a wine cellar, a garage for a golf cart, a technical room, a living room, a dining room, a family room, a kitchen, a pantry, and a terrace. The eight projects were located in sector K of the Marbella subdivision in front of the Golf Club course. The first four houses were built between 2003-2005 and the next four between 2005- 2006. On both occasions, Ochoalcubo made two media calls to invite the general public to visit each of the eight houses. The call was massive and thousands of people visited the project. The second stage was international. It included works by architects Toyo Ito, Rick Joy, and Guillaume Jullian, with the construction of the now Pritzker Prize winner's house, which was inaugurated with a pre- sentation by a Japanese architect. In October 2009, it was attended by approximately 1,300 architects and students. The line that formed to enter Ito's house was impressive. Following the Chilean earthquake of February 27, 2010, and the Jap- anese earthquake of March 11, 2011, Ochoalcubo decided to rethink the second international stage and, for it, acquired ten hectares located in front of the sea, four kilometers from the city of Los Vilos. Eight Chilean and eight Japanese architects were invited to participate. This new stage was named Ochoquebradas. In October 2012, when Japanese professionals ⁵ had arrived in Chile for the project, Ochoalcubo invited eight Chilean architecture schools to a workshop with them in Valparaíso. The venue was Universidad Federico Santa María. ⁶ The workshop consisted of intervening eight elevators in the Porteño hills, during five days of work, with the participation of Chilean students and professors together with eight Japanese architects. STRATEGIES OF A DREAMER How the Ochoalcubo project came about is one of Chilean architectural legends. The creator of Interdesign, Eduardo Godoy, a chemist by pro- fession and a lover of architecture, already knew Mathias Klotz when he 4 For Eduardo Godoy, number 8 is a magic number related to infinity. 5 Japanese Architects: Sou Fujimoto, Ryue Nishizawa, Kenzo Kuma, Kazuyo Sejima (2010 Pritzker Prize), Akihisa Hirata, Junya Ishigami, Maki Onishi + Yuki Hyakuda architects & Atelier Bow Wow: Yoshi Tsukamoto + Momoyo Kaijima. Chilean Architects: Luis Izquierdo + Antonia Lehmann, Cristián Undurraga, Alejandro Aravena, Felipe Assadi, Guillermo Acuña, Max Núñez, Felipe Wedeles (HLPS: Jonathan Holms + Martín Labbé + Carolina Portugueis + Osvaldo Spichiger. The original project included architects Mauricio Pezo and Sofía Von Ellrichshausen, who were excluded from the proposal. The same selection principle was used; four promising young architects and four established senior architects. 6 The 8 participating universities were: Universidad Federico Santa María as the organizer, Universidad Católica de Chile, Universidad del Desarrollo, Universidad Diego Portales, Universidad Finnis Terrae, Universidad de Chile, Universidad San Sebastián and Universidad Mayor de Chile.
invited him to a bar in Bellavista to propose an idea. “Sounds great, let's get out of here,” Klotz replied. The businessman also knew Christian de Groote, who had designed the facade of the Interdesign store on Isidora Goyenechea Avenue, as well as several transformations at his house. Eduardo Godoy acquired a large plot of land in Marbella in 2002. “I had bought it thinking of building eight houses, plus another eight,” recalls Godoy. “They were going to be experimental houses and then I was going to sell them. The idea occurred to me and I proposed it to Mathias Klotz; we got together and it was great. We agreed that the houses were going to be white and of a Mediterranean style, that they were going to have certain dimensions and qualities, and that was it, it worked out immediately. There was a minimum program and a maximum surface. There was also the issue of the houses opening to the north and closing to the south, but nothing more than that. There were no limits; the idea was that the architects would talk to each other to define what they were going to do”. In addition to the eight Chilean architects who agreed to carry out the project, there was a ninth participant: Toyo Ito, whom Godoy had previously known because he had bought furniture designed by the Japanese architect to sell at Interdesign. For example, Ripples banquettes and Sendai's media library bookshelves. When Godoy decided to pitch his idea to him, Toyo Ito was partici- pating in the Milan Fair and Philippe Godoy was studying at a university in Belgium. The businessman invited his son to the Italian city and the three of them met at a restaurant. When Eduardo spoke to him, Toyo Ito, in a very Japanese way, said, “Okay, okay. They shook hands and that was it, everything was settled,” says Philippe. “It was great, the conversation didn't last long, he accepted it, and from that moment on we started to develop the project”, recalls the businessman. In 2009 the White O House was inaugurated, designed by Toyo Ito, who traveled to Chile and stayed with the Godoy family the night before the inaugural event. Philippe emphasizes that the working relationship style was always friendly and almost informal. “I remember a meeting sometime later when we were talking about Los Vilos. Three people came to hear about the project and one of them asked: 'What is the business plan?' Eduardo replied annoyed: 'How can you talk about a business plan! This is something else, we don't use those terms!” “When people talked about business, it bothered me,” the entrepre- neur admits. “This was not a business.” He says that the idea of eight houses, and not seven or nine, was because he has always been fasci- nated by eight because it is a magic number. The guest architects also loved the fact that the project was called Ochoalcubo. Another one of Eduardo Godoy's innovations was to partner with Universidad Diego Portales so that architecture students could visit the construction sites during 2004 and 2005. A huge billboard, with the names and faces of the architects, was even installed on the site where the project was being built. INITIAL SPARK Around 2008, during the country's economic crisis, another stage began in Los Vilos. In that seaside resort, Godoy had acquired a macro lot for eight Chilean architects to design eight more houses and eight international architects to design their own. “We had become disenchanted, especially because the regulations were strict. We saw that we couldn't invite these foreign architects to design projects if there were too many restrictions in Marbella,” Philippe recalls. "So, we started thinking about another place and eventually we found a piece of land in Los Vilos. It was super nice, but small, we couldn't fit a whole phase on it. So, we contacted the owner of the lot, named Collao, who showed us another place, which we didn't like either. All of a sudden, we said: 'What about that place over there?´
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