APS Building
“When the artist uses a multiple modular method, he usually chooses a simple and accessible form. The form itself is of very limited importance; It becomes the grammar of the total work. Using complex basic forms only disrupts the unity of the whole. Using a simple form repeatedly narrows the field of the work and concentrates the intensity in the distribution of the form. This arrangement becomes the end, while the form becomes the means.”
Sol LeWitt, Paragraphs on Conceptual Art.
The Classroom Building is part of a complex of buildings that make up the Health Hub of the newly inaugurated Medical Program at the Fernando May Colvin Campus - Universidad del Bío-Bío in Chillán, Chile. The initial brief was to design, within a very limited timeframe, four buildings that would be constructed as new students join the School of Medicine. Each of these buildings will house various health-related programs. The first building to be constructed is the Classroom Building, which includes four classrooms, administrative space, and restrooms.
This single-story building has been structurally designed to support an additional level with a lightweight structure (steel or laminated wood), for which elevator shafts and the potential location of a staircase have been planned.
Given the opportunity to design a group of adjoining buildings, we set out to create a compact urban space, akin to a small citadel. To ensure unity between architectural and urban design decisions, we proposed a modular system that governs the dimensions of both the buildings and the spaces between them. This approach allows us to control the configuration of university gathering spaces beyond the classrooms.
A single constructive section provides a systematic response to defining the perimeter of the buildings in the complex, and this module is arranged as a multiple of the larger module that organizes the entire complex. Any specificity required for each building will be expressed through the horizontal and vertical repetitions of this module, ensuring a harmonious diversity as part of a unified composition.
