
Matta Sur Community Center + CESFAM
Santiago, Chile. 2015-2021
When architecture acts on historical buildings, it becomes responsible for the memory and identity of the place in which it is intervening.
luis vidal + architects has completely refurbished a 19th-century building located in the center of Santiago de Chile, carefully restoring and recovering it piece by piece. At the same time, its proposal included the design and construction of a new building within the existing plot (the General Healthcare Clinic – CESFAM), which aimed to establish a dialogue with the heritage building (a community center now), combining tradition and modernity.
The heart of the project lies in the dialogue between the two buildings that make up the Matta Sur Complex, the old one and the new one, through a homogeneous architectural language based on rhythm, materiality and spatiality. The design of the new building is respectful and discreet to enhance the original building. As a result of this dialogue, a new public space, the plaza, arises as a connecting element between the two centers.
The Matta Sur complex has a program that came out from neighbors’ surveys and is the answer to the challenge of the cities of the future and to what today’s societies need most urgently: more public spaces where neighbors can co-exist, share, be connected, and foster a sense of community. A project that, having been nominated and won on over ten occasions since its opening, keeps getting the attention of media and users worldwide.
- Place/Date: Santiago, Chile / 2015-2021
- Client: Ilustre Municipalidad de Santiago
- Architects: luis vidal + architects
- Consultants: Cristian Shadd / COBE / José María Jiménez / Estudio de Paisaje Arbolaria / One Geotecnia
- Area: 56,000 sq. ft.
- Budget: 8.6 M €
- Stage: Built
- Team: João Abreu – David Ávila – Bernat Burguera – Valentina Chisci – José Ignacio Comparini – Sebastián Cruz – Marta Cumellas – Patricio Fuentealba – Juan Francisco Letelier – Arturo López-Bachiller – Carlos Maldonado – Concha Millán – Enrique Pérez – Patricia Plath – Paola Ramírez – Cecilia Rodríguez – Patricia Rojas – Raúl Rosado – Santiago Sánchez – Paola Seguel – Encarnación Serna – Gabriel Sgorbini – Óscar Torrejón – Italo Veas – Luis Vidal
Awards
- International Architecture Award 2022 - The Chicago Athenaeum
- 1st Prize Best Renovation Project - Engineering News-Record Awards 2022
- Honorable Mention Architecture for Public Buildings and Institutional - LOOP Design Awards 2022
- 1st Prize Best Intervention on the City and Historic Centers - Gubbio Awards 2021
- Merit Historic Preservation Award - AIA New York State Design Awards
- 1st Prize Best Mixed Use Building or Equipment Project - Aporte Urbano 2021 Awards
- 1st Prize Public Building (Built) - Rethinking The Future Awards 2021
- 1st Prize Mixed Use Building (Built) - Architectural Press Release Global Future Design Awards 2021
- Winner Public Architecture/Refurbishment - DNA Paris Design Awards 2023
- Finalist in New & Old category - WAF 2022 World Architecture Festival
- Finalist in Mixed Use category - The Plan Magazine Awards




