Innovation Center – concrete exterior creates a heavy feeling of the building

Plan of Lo Contador campus

Interior lobby of Innovation Center

The day we visited the Universidad Católica was a day of figures and voids. At the San Joaquín campus, we studied two figures: Torres Siamesas and the Innovation Center. Each was an inverted version of the other. Torres Siamesas, built first, had a exterior wooden material patio with a glass structure standing in the center. Inside the glass shell is a polycarbonate pair of boxes that have slight displacements on the top. The heavier interior with a softer exterior is reversed in the Innovation Center with a heavy concrete exterior and softer wooden, glass, and steel interior. The Innovation Center is a heavy (in terms of weight) and light (in terms of light) from the concrete exterior and smooth and light inside the lobby. The first image is a sketch of the lobby of the Innovation Center. The difference between the two buildings reflects what Alejandro Aravena (architect) wanted and what his client wanted.

Lo Contador campus focused on voids. With limited space, the university chose to build down into the earth rather than up into the air. The center band of the university was a void used for traffic, displays, projects, sketching, and more. Cutting into the ground allows there to be classrooms and libraries under the ground level and maintaining the voids. The contrast of this void with the heavy structural figures at San Joaquín creates a dichotomy of the two campuses of the same university. It’s important to remember the importance of site characteristics and boundary conditions when designing.

From visiting the Universidad de Adolfo Ibañez (UAI)and Universidad Católica de Santiago (UC), I started noticing differences between the campus layout and culture. One of the more unique features of the universities in Chile is the use of outdoor space. In the Universidad Caólica and Universidad de Adolfo Ibañez, there were many spaces created outdoors for students. Much like Knowlton at OSU has the big steps, large steps used for sitting and socializing were found in at least three different instances outside in the open at UAI. There are many outdoor café’s and patios. There were multiple ping pong tables at both universities outside and often in use. Many projects from the architecture and design students were put on display in outdoor spaces. It was common to see students socializing or studying outside. In contrast, most is done indoors at OSU and the outdoor space is often used for recreation or socializing. This is logical with Columbus being a colder climate than Santiago. The university was also spread across different campuses with different colleges (engineering, medicine, etc.) at each campus. Unlike OSU where all colleges are on one campus, UC had the engineering campus separate from the design campus.

Steps outside at UAI, similar to the big steps in Knowlton

Another difference was that the university students did not live on campus. Instead, they commuted, often from home, to the university. This is hard to imagine when the university could be an hour away or longer to get to when the farthest location at OSU is roughly 15 minutes away for me. That long commute time is less time for studying or getting involved in activities. A lot of students on campus were also wearing jeans and semi casual clothes when it was nearing 90 degrees. While in the US, it’s all about comfort, in Chile, it’s about looking nice. I was unable to spot a single Chilean in gym shorts. It is great to compare how the universities are set up around the world so we can see what is worth replicating and appreciate what we already do well.