Isabel Riquelme Neighborhood Unit

The Isabel Riquelme Neighbourhood Unit is a set of integrated housing that promotes life in sustainable communities. It sits in the Víctor Jara Intercommunal Park in San Miguel and aims to help solve Santiago’s housing deficit and lack of green areas. It won second place in the CAP Chile 2020 competition.

The proposal is a building 400 m long by 50 m wide that frees the ground floor and creates a flexible public ground, able to host the formal trade of Persa Bío Bío, informal shops and the district’s itinerant fair, giving continuity to the urban fabric.

A system of rigid steel frames spanning up to 30 m holds suspended slabs that in turn carry prefabricated homes able to change over time. The upper beam of each frame forms a 750 m walkway inhabited by community facilities: nurseries, co-working areas, vertical gardens, a library, a gym and a café.