The project is located in Recoleta, Santiago de Chile. This barrio is nowadays becoming a urban ‘peri-centre’, a former periphery that found itself englobed by the gradual city expansion. For this reason, Recoleta fell under the pressure of real estate market, that is willing to profit from the barrio location. The project Lote 9×18 proposes an alternative densification strategy by envisioning 3-to-4 storeys buildings to occupy the plots, without the need of inhabitants’ relocation.

The design proposal articulates into a strategy for a public space requalification and a pilot project for houses densification. The public space is designed taking care of sidewalks and their role as sites for informal commerce and extension of private plot. By understanding the square to be defined by its bordering streets, three actions are envisioned to enforce respectively three different relationships with the different calles.

The plot densification is arranged around the idea of the patio: as fundamental space for family life in Chile, an open space reinterpretation is ensured to all the apartment typologies thanks to the central vertical distribution. The housing typologies are developed on modules, assembled to guarantee the flexibility necessary to overcome the idea of a ‘standard family’ nucleus. Private and public life of the barrio encounter in the filter space on the ground floor, possible through the retreat of the building from the street front.