Biennale Architettura 2016 - National Participation of Chile

Against the Tide presents the efforts of a generation of young architects who have conceived, designed, and constructed works of architecture, while also handling financing and contracting for them, in order to earn their professional certification. All they have in common is that they belong to the Central Valley of Chile, where they have returned following their academic training to contribute to their communities, creating architectures which trace a filigree of places where the region’s campesinos and their families can live and work.

These architectures have been erected with minimal resources, with the residues of agricultural processes and with readily available local materials, contributing value and inserting the territory into a global context through a regional—but not a costumbrista—approach. Out of this rural landscape and environment, in constant transformation due to agricultural activity and urban development, there emerges a series of pavilions, rest stops, miradors, lunch shelters, and plazas, or simply places for shade and social encounter, ephemeral or permanent, explicit of abstract.

The works are highway stops, miradors, lunch shelters. They are practical or dreamy, ephemeral or permanent, explicit or abstract. They are built of the remains of various processes having to do with agriculture (mesh, slats, containers, pallets) or with forestry (branches, discarded timber). All this material, when placed in the hands of the architect, generates a frequently original constructive system aimed at making a place for these campesinos who may well be the architects’ grandparents and who once, when they were young, also built with what they found in the territory.

The fishermen’s union in the locality of Putú at lunchtime usually takes shelter under ramadas. Once the working day is over, the shelter is moved, like a campsite, to the next fishing site. It was from this itinerant activity that the idea emerged of a construction that would resemble these precarious structures, reflecting the close ties they have with the inhabitants of the Central Valley. Notions of tensegrity and arte povera are also incorporated, helping to integrate the structure delicately into the territory and highlighting the fragile relationship of human beings with their surroundings. Author: Daniel Prieto

The project is constituting a public cultural support for the community, intended to help to configure an identity for the locality, and acting as a cultural magnet associated with the territory, its history, and its particular ways of life. Associated with the traditional horseraces of rural Chile, the pavilion helps to configure the image of a landscape, a community, and a country in function of its traditions, renewing and integrating a civic sector of the village, promoting rural tourism, and contributing to the sustenance of the community, which sees its roots reflected in this traditional activity. Author: Claudio Castillo

This work consists of a structure for temporarily storing picked fruit and providing shelter to the extra seasonal workers employed during the harvest. The washable wall surfaces are of concrete and drywall and the roof of PVC, attached to a light, dismountable structure that makes for a cool, ventilated space, ideal for storing fruit and providing a comfortable rest space for the seasonal workers. Located where it is, the structure serves as a reference point both in the fields and as part of the landscape, making it possible to gauge sizes and distances. Author: Ximena Céspedes

The project is located in one of the most polluted places in the locality of Armerillo. Because of its remoteness and the easy access to the canal, people use this place as a garbage dump. The work is situated in at an intermediate point between the cordillera and the canal, creating a nexus by means of the arrangement of a series of rigid elements, framed by recognizable local landmarks. Thus, the experience of the users can include several distinct moments: they can deposit their trash, wash their hands, and pause to enjoy the surrounding landscape before continuing on their journey. Author: César Verdugo

The project is located in a part of Piedras Blancas which residents have to get to on bicycle in order then to take transportation to their final destinations. They need to leave their bicycles chained to trees before continuing their journeys. The work takes into account the particular circumstances of living and building in an agricultural zone, a rural landscape and vernacular constructions and materials.The works consists of a platform, a place where bicycles can be parked, and a roof. This place of passage responds to a basic need of the rural context in which it is inserted. Author: Juan Francisco Inostroza

Lo Valdivia is a locality that depends on sea water. It is a salt-producing enclave territory halfway between land and sea. The project seeks to leave a trace on the territory with a height that can be determined from afar. The challenge is to preserve the levelness of the site, the white tones, the height, and the territorial context to become a new part of the history. This is preserved by one hundred photographs placed inside the hoses with concepts such as territory, inhabitant, industrial activity, material, and landscape, providing matter to ensure that the memories are not forgotten. Author: Felipe Aranda

The project is located on the northern bank of the Lontué River. It is to function as a lunch room for seasonal workers engaged in pruning, picking, and harvesting. A fundamental premise of the project was to provide sufficient shelter to allow for some privacy and a restful place to eat. Familiar elements from the region were used as architectural solutions: stones taken from the river, wood from disposal bins, eucalyptus branches, mesh, and tensioned wire. The objective was a balance between the provisional nature and the visual command of the landscape. Author: Javier Rodríguez

The beach at Pelluhue, mainly accessed by road, is surrounding by a rough and rocky topography. The pavilion salvages and reuses wood thrown up by the tsunami to create a densely structured landmark recognizable within the landscape. A horizontal volume, sectioned within for optimal habitability, rests on a rocky base platform, open to the ocean and framing the horizon. With its tranquil horizontal placement within the landscape, it creates a transition between mountain and sea. Author: Felipe Muñoz

Located in Malloa, this project consists of a group of two interrelated mirador- shelters overlooking the surrounding landscape. The two volumes, each one constructed of concrete slabs and walls of baled straw, rest on a pair of terrace platforms. The roofs are of vegetal fibers which provide shade and frame views of the surroundings. Inserted gently into its site, with the incline assumed as an element in the design, the work looks out onto the landscape, incorporating its surroundings and offering the user an unhurried view of the rural context. Author: Tanya Vera

The project is inserted into a rural community consisting of a number of houses groups around a small common area, totally lacking in public infrastructure. The new element defines a public space that both integrates residents and gathers in elements from the rural periphery. The elevated platform, made of wood recycled from pallets collected in the area, serves as a support for neighborhood activities. A clay oven is incorporated as a catalyst for social interaction. Finally, the roof, made of three layers of tensioned Raschell mesh, provides shade and lends a sense of density to the place. Author: Gabriel Garrido

The design draws on a geometry that evokes the sacred, transforming a barren summit into a landmark and a social encounter space. It is oriented by means of three movements: by clearing and organizing an ascending promenade; by constructing and controlling a circular envelope; and by installing a stairway that runs through the interior in a single line. The circular structure consists of a series of wooden piles arranged in crossing diagonals to form two parallel circular planes. This structure supports a metallic grille filled in with hawthorn branches gathered from the clearing of the uphill promenade. Author: Ximena Cáceres

The plaza is located along a public avenue in Villa San Sebastián: an urban border dialoguing with a rural landscape. The project was designed to salvage something of what it had signified and to restore life to what might have been a patio in the shade of a tree. Wooden pallets made for a low-cost, easily-handled repetitive structural element. By grouping the pallets in vertical position an efficient constructive system was achieved, capable of defining a self-supporting volume, which makes it possible to enjoy views of the valley, feeling the breezes and listening to the leaves under the shade of a tree. Author: Jonnattan Silva

Two incomplete cubes, placed face to face, which configure a space for work and for storing the results of production. The first cube is of metal, offering protection from rain and sunlight, while the second is of roughhewn wood, with an exterior shell that blends into the surroundings and can be easily repaired. The language established by the materials and technologies is accessible and commonly understood. The building opens up to the landscape and suggests a ventilated space, but at the same time the constructed body embraces the vegetal dynamism of its surroundings. Author: Yasna Monsalve

The project is an intervention into a water tank of the Pencahue cemetery, which is transformed into a community meeting place and a landmark. Construction is based on oak slats, attached to a steel structure, inside and outside of the steel rings, lending it both depth from a distance and greater visual permeability from close up. The underlying platform consists of the same oak slats laid edgewise, guiding visitors to the points where water can be accessed, it makes for efficient drainage and will prevent the muddy areas, facilitating circulation and making it more pleasant and convenient to users. Author: Carolina Guerra

The project calls for a shade shelter from which to watch the traditional horseraces organized occasionally as part of the local rural fiestas. The construction consists of a light, fragile, sinuous, and highly permeable covering, which allows light to filter through even as it provides shade and protection from the rain. The covering rests on a structure of wooden pillars and beams. The design experiments with plywood as a basic construction unit. Owing to its dimensions and greater porosity, plywood allows for better control of the climatic conditions—sunlight, wind, rain—to which the sheets of wood are subjected. Author: Carolina Solís