Organiser:     Arquitectum,

Project:         ‘Faces of Surco’  Green 360

Competition Summary

Occupying an elevated site of prominence in Santiago de Surco, an ensemble of forms was proposed, conceived as a family of urban figures looking over the city of Lima. 

Although comprising a repeated organisation of plan, and clearly a member of the family of forms, each block is unique and offers a different face to the city.  Whilst any anthropomorphic approach was avoided in the treatment of the facades, a ludic arrangement of openings in an otherwise monolithic volume provides a distinct character and hence, a face, to each block.

The extreme topography of the site was employed to generate a contrast between the urban scale of the development facing the city to the north and the more human scale to the rear, from which the buildings are accessed.  A low energy solution was proposed whereby a largely passive design of high thermal mass and natural ventilation mean the buildings will be comfortable throughout the year, with a minimal demand on the heating-cooling systems.