Martinez de Rozas
Martínez de Rozas (MDR) is a residential project, formed by 11 houses in Quinta Normal, in the pericenter of Santiago de Chile.
The project is born as an innovative design opportunity to deal with the housing deficit that affects the middle-class population (in Chile, the middle class is classified as people whose income is 3 to 5 points above the actual poverty line, it represents 61% of the population according to the 2017 census) that has historically inhabited this area, but, due to the excessive increase in land value in an imperfect and deregulated market, these families have been forced to migrate to peripheric areas. This is not just an architectural or economic problem, but essentially a social one due to the progressive destruction of the human fabric that has been constituted in this neighborhood for decades. Under this context, the middle-class population has been forced to pay high rent prices, this way, MDR is a privately managed solution for middle-class housing.
Quinta Normal is a traditional commune of Santiago, of majorly residential use, with equipment and large green areas. Thus, there´s the opportunity to transform the formerly industrial states from the last 30 years into new collective housing projects preventing the eradication of families from the area in search of housing at a fair price.
The architectural project materializes the search and experimentation in terms of the typology of condominiums. The main objective of the design was to guarantee harmony between the existing neighborhood through a medium size scale, avoiding great heights that are being used frequently in new projects nearby. As a result, MDR defines a group of 3 floors with free surfaces for common areas, maximizing the space and habitability qualities of the property.
In the complex, formed of 11 units, each house has an underground parking space, a living-dining room, and a kitchen on the first floor (a total of 32 m2), a courtyard (17 m2); on the second floor there are three bedrooms and one bathroom (40 m2) and, on the third floor, there´s a panoramic rooftop-courtyard (40 m2). The house, with a useful constructed area of 72 m2, and a total area of 129 m2, forges a housing solution to the current low standards (with an average of 60 m2). The unit maximizes the private open areas (courtyards and rooftops), granting a higher quality of life for family recreation, at the same, providing closed spaces (bedrooms and services) of optimal dimensions for domestic life.
MDR is part of urban regeneration, it seeks to unite the existing neighborhoods through a medium-height elevation and quality common spaces, it dialogues both with its surroundings and with the essence of neighborhood life of its future residents.
