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Arch2O.com - Architecture & Design Magazine
Lofts Yungay II is a collective housing building located in the outskirts of the World Heritage Area of Valparaíso, Chile. This city is one of the largest Chilean ports in the Pacific Ocean. Valparaiso?s landscape is very characteristic due to its many hills packed with colorful houses almost falling out of the cliffs. Each house is different from one another, but together they create a harmonic landscape.
Courtesy of Rearquitectura – Photographs : Marcos Mendizabal
The project?s lot is located in a hill side with a strong slope in both north-south and east-west directions. The site has two main facades; the east fa̤ade faces the street at the top of the hill, mean while the west fa̤ade faces a steep cliff. Courtesy of Rearquitectura РPhotographs : Marcos Mendizabal
The project was intended to blend into this urban landscape characterized by the combination of small colorful houses dispersed throughout the steep hillside. The building required to house 20 units, and thus its volume was much larger than the neighboring houses and would require a heavy intervention of the hill?s geography. This would destroy the scale and geography of this urban landscape.
Courtesy of Rearquitectura – level -01 floor plan
Courtesy of Rearquitectura – west Elevation
To blend, the project required a smaller scale, and required to adapt into the geography. For this reason the building was fragmented into a se...