The campus that houses the School of Communications run by Fundación DUOC UC, an institute of higher studies connected with Universidad Católica de Chile (Catholic University), stands in a new neighborhood known as San Carlos de Apoquindo, which rises at the eastern end of Santiago, between the farthest signs of urban development and the foothills of the Andes.
The land where this building is located, at the point of transition between natural surroundings and urban development, showed two distinctive features: the powerful presence of many hills rising in all their majesty, on the one hand, and on the other a periphery revealing a culture in the process of transformation. This evident change in social structure is reflected in a new esthetics of individuality.
The sheer magnitude and force of the natural setting sparked the idea of erecting a walled structure that would become a base and pedestal for the mountains. Accordingly, a stone base was built, strictly complementing the natural surroundings. The new paving surrounding the building adheres faithfully to the local topography, planes and steps closely following the sloping contour of the terrain.
The main feature of the building is a dense opaque block measuring 180 meters in length descending towards the valley, sheltering a protected interior, made dynamic by a curved, enfolding design. The continuous horizontal cornice serves as counterpoint to the rolling rocky masses of the nearby mountains. Inside, the front becomes lighter. Concrete beams and columns hold up the various horizontal levels of circulation in rhetorical harmony with the lower buildings in front, in addition to framing the mountain landscape that goes with you as you as the proceed along the arcades.
A garden was built on the roofs of these lower buildings, filling the interval between architecture and nature, extending to join the magnificent natural scenery, and creating a lighter leisure area to balance the built-over, more ´urban`, space created by the proximity of the facing constructions.
