The city that takes good care of its cultural heritage is the city that listens to its past without neglecting its future. This delicate balance between memory and contemporaneity is what a perdurable architecture, committed to contribute to the society, provides. Those are the cornerstones for the Matta Sur Complex. And this is luis vidal + architects´approach to what a responsible design means: A contribution to the social dialogue with an environmental commitment. The result is an unprecedented building refurbishment that gives back to the city of Santiago de Chile one of its most iconic constructions. Past, present and future merge in a building that combines modernity with tradition, technology with sustainability, innovation with respect for the city’s heritage.

Rethinking The Future Awards 2021
First Award |  Public Building (Built)

©Aryeh Kornfeld, luis vidal + architects

The Matta Sur Complex consists of two buildings located within the same plot: the former Metropolitan Lyceum of Santiago, built in 1891, and restored to host social uses such as a nursery school, a gym or an auditorium; and a new-build construction which will accommodate a CESFAM (a Public Primary Healthcare Center). Both buildings have a total built area of 5,500 m² that will give support to a community of more than 30,000 users. Along with these buildings and articulating them, there’s the public plaza, located in the center of the plot, that provides the community with an open space to promote social encounters, thus becoming the heart of the project.

©Aryeh Kornfeld, luis vidal + architects

luis vidal + architects accepted the challenge of, on the one hand, restoring this historic building, and on the other, designing a new-build construction that integrates harmoniously into the whole. Therefore, our new interventions aim to translate the most singular elements of the preexisting building, but using a contemporary, austere language that does not compete with the historic building style but enhances it.

©Aryeh Kornfeld, luis vidal + architects

A careful analysis of the preexisting building, combined with a delicate and conscious design that involves materiliality, spatiality, functionality, rhythm, sustainability, façade studies and light are the key aspects of the proposal.

As a result, luis vidal + architects achieves its goal: to retrieve and reveal the building´s original architectural and aesthetic value, while establishing a dialogue between the historic building and the new.