The office that designed the Bajada 19 Norte public space improvement project for Las Salinas, obtained an important recognition in the world of architecture, the 2020 Latin American Architecture Award. This prize was awarded on November 18 in the framework of the 2020 Pan American Architecture Biennial, held in Quito, Ecuador, which seeks to recognize the best of Latin American architectural production. The winning project is the new Nancagua Municipality, which originated after the 2010 earthquake and was won in a public bidding process by the Beals Lyon Arquitectos office. As it indicates, they conceived their work as a civic space – a sort of parade ground – in connection with typical Chilean architecture, taking advantage of the existence of an old rural mansion where the municipality used to be. “Our project incorporates materials and spaces that already existed in the old house, with the hope of replicating the life that took place there. Thus, we worked with a plinth built with lime-painted bricks and a perimeter gallery on the second floor, which serves as a place for informal meetings and gatherings. The gallery, formed by a regular colonnade, owes its measurements and materiality to the galleries of the old house. It is this element that defines and unifies the central public space of the project,” they explain. is the architectural firm that developed the project for Las Salinas, which seeks to reverse the current state of deterioration of the 19 North descent and thus propose a new pedestrian walkway focused on universal accessibility and inserted in a .
