SMOG
ARCHITECTS
Sebastián Bravo
AREA
140.0 m2
YEAR
2010
LOCATION
Santiago, Chile
CATEGORY
Offices Interiors
Text description provided by architect.
This project is located on the top floor of a building formerly occupied by textile workshops, in the Patronato area of Santiago.
With ‘La Vega’, the city's main produce market at its heart, and generations of Chinese, Korean and Middle Eastern immigrants thriving in the textile business and marketing products from their own countries, Patronato is known for its funky little stores and street vendors. Not your typical location for an office in Santiago.
With an open, bright, empty space in mind, this former workshop seemed like the perfect choice for the client —a motion graphics studio.
The strategy was to locate the only private part of the studio —an enclosed conference room— in the center of the space. Reception, dining area, bathroom, kitchen and a large work area would revolve around it.
A rather tight budget kept materials and solutions as simple as they could possibly be.
With that in mind, flooring, walls and windows were kept as they were. The suspended ceiling was stripped away to reveal the original timber and metal structure.
Old electrical wiring was replaced by an exposed installation on trays rising 3m above the floor.
Raw construction materials —as opposed to more sophisticated solutions— were used as finishings. Fiber cement boards line the interior of the meeting space and painted plywood serves as flooring.
The resulting design embraces its industrial origin, providing a flexible setup that fully reflects the way the team collaborate, allowing informal congregation and mobility.
