FOA house

The project is planned as a square plan pavilion with 10 meter side for el Clarín, located in the meadow, without dominant directions with the access emptying out of the cobble stone path flanking the train viaduct.

Photography: Claudio Manzoni

A building whose enclosure is of emerald glass suggesting forms without defining them, cut as well by transparent vertical tears arranged randomly to allow one to appreciate the remnants of the surroundings, images like vertical paintings that are recomposed creating a controlled reality. The process is like reading a newspaper, one goes cutting and pasting information intentionally.

At night the situation is inverted, the space is converted into a box of light with vertical windows that permit the decomposition and arming of fragments of the interior possessing a single eccentric column and roof that is raised toward the perimeter characterizing the space as a as a place of non-existent covering, accentuating the interior light.

The presence of the luminous walls with the transparencies that vertically cut to the surroundings, helps to give the sensation of levity as everything appears to float. The furnishings of the library are armed with pieces of different woods with triangular tables for the reference computers and two long wood benches.

The floor is made of separated wood boards forming an apparent deck over the tracks of the train that passes through the sight literally traversing the space. The exterior facades have a system of movable aluminum vertical elements from Hunter Douglas with two colors rotating with the wind, converting this building to an organism with a changing movement of colors and reflections.
The metal structure is supported over a foundation beam that is the support for the enclosure.
The pivoting door is of size that allows it to be perceived as an architectural element more than a functional security mechanism. It separates the entrance and exit as well as signals the access from a distance when it remains open.

Mathías Klotz Architect, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, 1991. Winner of the Borromini Prize for Architects under 40, 2001 and first prize in the Biennial of Buenos Aires with de FOA house, 2008. He has been a studio professor of architecture in Santiago and Valparaíso. He has been a guest professor in Italy, Spain and Mexico. His works have been published and exposed in Europe, America and Asia. Since 2003 he has been Dean of the School of Architecture, Art and Design at the Universidad Diego Portales in Santiago.