In 2014, the Fundación Mario Toral, together with governmental and professional institutions, launched a national competition to design a museum that would house the works of renowned artist Mario Toral. Seeking to leave a living legacy, Toral envisioned the construction of a cultural center of approximately 4,000 m² on a 5,000 m² site located within an exclusive residential neighborhood in Santiago, where his home and studio are also situated.
The site, characterized by abundant vegetation and a significant slope, restricts the intervention to a delimited area aimed at preserving the most valuable trees. A maximum height of two stories and ten meters, mandated by zoning regulations, implicated that the majority of the program be arranged underground.
The architectural strategy is based on specific actions that ensure a sensitive integration within the neighborhood while simultaneously endowing the cultural building with character and monumentality, making it open and accessible to the community.
A reinforced concrete slab appears to levitate above the terrain, framing views towards the Santiago valley in a contemplative «plaza of silence,» where only the distant horizon and sky are perceived. Two lateral beams control sightlines towards neighboring properties, eliminating visual noise and abstracting the scale into a geographic space. On the western edge, a reflecting pool replaces a traditional railing, mirroring the sky and enhancing the sense of infinity. This plaza serves as the final point of the visitor’s route.
The museum entrance is located beneath the elevated slab, positioned against the descending terrain, and leads to a sequence of four excavated levels with generous ceiling heights ranging between 4.5 and 9 meters, organized around a central descending pathway.
Generous light wells illuminate the exhibition rooms from the east and west through glazed enclosures. Due to their sub-grade positioning, the light reaches these spaces indirectly, avoiding direct sunlight, which is undesirable for this program type.
The visitor experience is conceived as a three-stage journey: entry, descent, and culmination, with the architecture itself guiding and stimulating the visitor’s perception. At the end of the route, located at level –4 and nearly 20 meters deep, an elevator ascends towards the cafeteria and the elevated terrace.
Despite the architectural radicality, the project remains discreet and unobtrusive within the neighborhood fabric.
Client: Fundación Mario Toral
Award: First Prize
Architect: Albert Tidy
Collaborators: Sebastián Cruz, Cristóbal Riffo, Ken Qiu Sun
Location: Los Dominicos Neighborhood, Las Condes, Santiago, Chile
Built Area: 3,800 m²
Materials: Reinforced concrete
Year: 2013