M A T H I A S
K L E N N E R
PORTFOLIO
INTRODUCTION
TOMA
CONTENTS
During my undergrad studies in the School of Architecture
TOMA is an architecture collective based in Santiago
Introduction + TOMA
2
of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile, I had
de Chile, formed in 2012. TOMA develops experimental
professors that helped me to understand that the discipline
projects of action and investigation, inquiring in conflicts
Never Discuss Politics at Home
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was not only about designing objects, buildings or cities.
of community and territory, and their connections with
Never Discuss Politics at Home Tv Show
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Architecture can also generate a critical reflection about
the current context of neoliberal “progress”.
Especulópolis
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Especulópolis Tv
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La Ocupación
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Comedor
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Allegados at the CCE
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the socio-spatial conflicts we face in the world today, and it provides a number of possible factual responses,
Born in the context of a world in crisis, locally and globally,
actions such as occupying public spaces to empower
TOMA directs its practice towards the construction of
communities, experimenting with new ways of building
critical scenarios. TOMA´s projects combine design
cities and recovering the memory of forgotten places,
and construction work, the development of territorial
among others.
narratives,
the
visualization
and/or
generation
of
conflicts for the organization of temporary and unstable Once I became an Architect, I begun my career working
communities that allow the generation of critical or
in private housing and urban design projects, but rapidly
alternative discourses and actions to the hegemonic
I realized that the context was questioning the role of
neoliberal consensus.
architecture in a world of social, ecological and political
Infante 1415
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Patio Infante 1415
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The Dinning Room
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The Labyrinth
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crisis. With a group of friends that shared my concerns,
TOMA produces infrastructure, collages, activities, classes,
in 2012 we decided to form an architecture collective
articles, journals, interventions, collections, occupations,
...And Naked
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called TOMA, and by using architecture as a starting
magazines,
Endogamia
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point, we began to shape projects that promoted critique,
programs, plays, chats, sound pieces, archives, web pages
citizen collaboration, construction of community and the
and other mechanisms of material and symbolic dispute.
Quimerotropo
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Community Intervention Studio
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Constructos Sonoros
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The Rooftop
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Urban Explorations
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The Headquarters
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drawings,
workshops,
films,
television
appropriation of public space. Since 2014, I connected this work with academic teaching
The work of TOMA has been exhibited in Santiago,
in different schools of architecture, imparting classes of
Valparaíso, Athens, Istanbul, Chicago, New York and
urbanism and design studio practice.
Melbourne.
This portafolio presents projects related to the collective
TOMA is composed by Ignacio Saavedra, Eduardo Pérez,
work of TOMA, academic teaching and solo projects.
Ignacio Rivas, Mathias Klenner and Leandro Cappetto. 2
NEVER DISCUSS POLITICS AT HOME
occupied exhibition at rmit design hub - toma
AUG - OCT 2016 melbourne
NEVER DISCUSS POLITICS AT HOME is a project developed by TOMA for Occupied Exhibition, at RMIT Design Hub, in Melbourne. It explores the domestic space and its capacity as a political stimulus through a collection of architectural tv shows, movies, magazines, newspapers, pictures, websites and books. Every week, a public meal was organized, and guests were invited to discuss the political conflicts of urban issues of our time: real estate speculation, affordable housing, gentrification, demolition, displacement, urban memory, community resistance, manifestations and protests, occupations of buildings and territories, contamination of urban natural resources. The project remained open for 2 months, with a member of TOMA in residence. The visitors of the exposition had the chance to comment its content with the occasional inhabitant.
» Site » Facebook » Article » Video » New version 3
NEVER DISCUSS POLITICS AT HOME - TV SHOW
EXPERIMENTAL TV SHOW - toma JUNE 2017 - FEB 2018 melbourne - SANTIAGO
Never Discuss Politics at Home, the TV Show! is an architectural -and experimental- TV show that explores the relation between domesticity, global conflicts and media, through the development of a fictional TV programming of a fictional territory. This project is an attempt to develop a critical understanding and an active response to the neoliberal power that has been shaping the context in which we have been living for the last 45 years. The project wants to question and subvert the complex figure between contemporary global socio-territorial conflicts, mass media, domestic space and our discipline. To achieve this, NDPAH proposes to re-explore the enormous
communicative
capacity of architecture
through a hand-made domestic-television format, in order to construct critical narratives about the most relevant territorial conflicts. The general structure of the project is based on the action of zapping, and it’s developed as short TV capsules to navigate through, arranged in 8 episodes. Project funded by the Graham Foundation Grant Program for individuals, 2017.
» Site » Graham Grant 4
ESPECULOPOLIS
Project for the Chicago Architecture Biennial 2015 Oct – Dec 2015 Chicago
The case study for ESPECULOPOLIS is Santiago de Chile, the neoliberal city par excellence, shaped by the thoughts of the ¨Chicago Boys¨, whose ideas became prominently influential during Pinochet’s dictatorship and still resonate deeply within Chilean society today. ESPECULOPOLIS brought and exposed four ¨urban crimes¨ - four specific territories from Santiago de Chile - through which this historical process is exposed to offer an opportunity for open discussion and reflection. During 2 weeks, TOMA installed its office at the CAB 2015, were three collective actions were developed: Cases Parliament: A discussion scene that relates the four case studies through historical facts and relevant actors, building up a territorial cosmogony over the last 50 years. Speculative Tribune: A collective newspaper. It contains reflections on the contemporary city, declassified documents, comments about the biennial, speculations about possible post-neoliberal cities, photo reportages, etc. The Evidence Board and Archive: gathers information detailing the history of neoliberalism in Santiago de Chile and in the world. The Evidence Board organizes this history and its manifestations in the urban environment.
» Speculative Tribune #0 #1 #2 #3 #4 » Article on ArchDaily » Videos #1 #2 #3
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ESPECULOPOLIS TV
Residence project for infante 1415 - toma
Jan 2017 santiago
This project was developed as the conclusion of the residence of TOMA at the Centro Cultural Infante 1415, owned by the Municipality of Providencia. This sequel of Especulopolis, that took place at the basement of Infante, exhibited in Santiago the research and deployment of its first version. This time, the focus was on mass media and its role in perpetuating and strengthening the current global neoliberal order, and, more specifically, in the responsibility of architecture in this fabric. Is there will and power within the discipline to construct the processes – and not only the results – that shape the world today? On this basis, Especulopolis TV is proposed as a researchaction project on the audiovisual language generating an opportunity for collective creation of open and critical contents. Especulopolis TV developed a programmed schedule that explored different TV formats (Infomercials, Talk shows, Game show, Music Clip, Weather Report, News, Documentary), as an exercise for the production and circulation of contents. These programs were developed and created by number of collaborators and external guests. Collaborators: Ariztia Lab / Milm2 / La nueva Gráfica Chilena / Francisco Díaz /Juan Pablo Corbalán + Daniel Santana/ REA (Red De Estudiantes De Arquitectura).
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LA OCUPACIÓN
An Occassional City
Jan 2014 santiago
La Ocupación (The Occupation) took place at the Cultural Center MilM2, in the facilities of an old hat factory. Situated in the very core of the gentrification processes in Santiago, La Ocupación occurred during the last week before it got demolished. By using the figure of an Occasional City, La Ocupación was an exercise of temporary occupation that explored different ways of collaboration and new forms of collectiveness. Eight temporary institutions, developed by different collectives, placed in two warehouses, an exhibition room and a backyard, took part in this one week experiment. It functioned day and night from 5-11 of january 2014, with a continuous program. Each institution developed an infrastructural and programmatic proposal, and was asked to relate both with other institution as with the general collectivity. In this manner, The Occupation was a space of action and reflection, a temporary ecosystem to inquire about the possibilities of the social space. The Institutions were: The Press Room / The Nocturnal University / The World / The Sanatorium / The Music House / The Bakery / The Identitorium / The Dining Room.
» The Press Room Issues #1 #2 #3 #4 #5 » La Ocupacion Milm2 7
COMEDOR
temporary occupation of gam plaza - toma
Aug - Oct 2014 santiago
COMEDOR (DINING ROOM) is a project of temporary occupation of the central plaza of GAM, the largest cultural center in Santiago de Chile. COMEDOR is proposed as a recovery action of the memory of the building - originally the UNCTAD III (United Nations Conference of Trade and Development
Dinner Table x12, Large Bench x16, Short Bench x16.
The Kitchen
1972) then Gabriela Mistral Metropolitan Cultural Center 1972-73 and then Diego Portales (Pinochet dictatorship headquarters 1973-90)- specifically of the dining room which functioned in the original cultural center from august 1972 to September 1973. This cultural center represented the ideals and hopes of the first socialist government in Chile, and the dining room was the heart of this space where artists, students, thinkers and workers who believed in this project met each other. COMEDOR links the food and the culture as ritual practices associated to meeting, conversation and exchange. The memory recovery appears as a link between a temporary community and a public space. Dining room opened its doors in September 2014, and remained in operation for five weeks, offering typical Chilean food and many activities, such as music concerts and lectures. Associated
Collaborators:
Denise
Elphick
(cultural
manager), Patricio Garcés (chef), Sergio Benavente (manager) and GAM. » Facebook » Gam » Article on Plataforma Arquitectura 8
The Ticket Office
The mobile Table
The Kiosk
ALLEGADOS AT THE CCE
RESIDENCE AT THE CULTURAL CENTER OF SPAIN - TOMA
MAR - JUN 2017 SANTIAGO
The meaning of the word “Allegado” in Chile and Latin America is someone who lives temporarily in someone else’s house, usually without being a relative of the owner. The Cultural Centre of Spain in Santiago de Chile commissioned TOMA to build a series of furniture for three spaces: a residence laboratory for artists called “Mate Sur Lab”, a workshop called “La Nube” and a communal terrace called “La Isla Verde”. Instead we proposed them to make a residence in the Cultural Centre for a period of three months to refurbish these three spaces. The idea was to have all the process of research, design and construction inside the place, in order to pursue a deeper relation with the spaces and the inhabitants of the Centre. The process would be open to public and also part of the project, in a performative way. We invited two “allegados”, Nicolás Aracena and Nicolás Grum, both artists, to be part of the residence, bringing their own knowledge and way of doing to affect the process. For the workshop place “La Nube” we worked with Nicolás Aracena, creating a giant-scale furniture made of recovered wood beams, collected in a demolition site. For the residence laboratory we worked with Nicolás Grum, testing all the possibilities of the place, and also transforming and recovering old furniture of the Cultural Centre. The kitchen happened to be the gravitating feature of this scenario for the artists in residency.
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INFANTE 1415
INFRASTRUCTURE PROJECT - toma JUL - SEP 2015 santiago
In 2014, the local government of Providencia, Santiago de Chile, acquired a central plot of land which included two buildings formerly part of a textile factory of historical value. After years of underuse, the facilities would be rehabilitated to preserve their original productive purpose, but the program would take a new direction; Infante 1415 would become the first public Creation Factory in Chile, a government sponsored cultural center to encourage the creative activities of the local community. Within this framework, TOMA was commissioned to develop the furniture as part of the refurbishment of Infante 1415. It was necessary that the proposal addressed both functional and symbolic issues, as it was a basic requirement to provide space for a wide range of activities and uses that could integrate the new space into the community. The MONSTRUITOS DE LA HILANDERIA furniture series developed for this project explores two basic principles: the reclamation of found materials from the factory, and the application of simple construction techniques. A series of objects were created: each piece formed as a unique individual, an inhabitant of the space.
Âť Plataforma Arquitectura 10
PATIO FOR INFANTE 1415
PATIO FOR A PUBLIC CREATION FACTORY - toma
NOV 2015 - JAN 2016 santiago
A few months after the opening, the local government of Providencia commissioned TOMA to participate in a second phase of the rehabilitation of the Infante 1415 Creation Factory. This time we were tasked with transforming the exterior space of the factory into a patio. The central approach for the construction of the Patio was the inclusion of the members of the local community into the design and construction process. As in the first phase, the scope of the project transcended the structural requirements. The most essential part of the project was the development and strengthening of the local community, a group of empowered neighbors who would be able to organize, appropriate and make decisions over the territory. For the process of promoting this community, the first task was to render the planning process completely open and visible. A series of expository devices were employed to reveal the decisions, resources and reflections of the group, and this is where the project expresses its political dimension: by fostering an active condition of the citizens to democratize public resources and processes. In the same manner, the design and building processes were open and inclusive, allowing active participation of all interested individuals. In that sense, the materialization of the project is understood as a tool for the locals to claim full ownership over the process as a method to boost selforganization and self-management of the community.
Âť Plataforma Arquitectura 11
THE DINNING ROOM
TEMPORARY PUBLIC DINNING ROOM - TOMA
SEP 2013 - FEB 2014 SANTIAGO
The second headquarter of TOMA, was in the Community Cultural Center Milm2 inside the cultural factory: FactorĂa Italia, this project responds to the need of a reunion place inside the cultural factory. The project proposes a temporary dinning room which can be used in different contexts, composed by a textile cover, modular furniture and an aerial garden. El Comedor, operated as a reunion place and dining room, during September 2013 to February 2014, for the people who worked inside FactorĂa Italia. It also was used as a backup infrastructure for fairs, music concerts, political meetings and art exhibitions. Because of its adaptability, the project was also used for a fair in a public park in the center of Santiago as a pic-nic cover. And finally its structure was replicated for covering a playground inside the Museo Interactivo Mirador (MIM) located at the south of Santiago.
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THE LABYRINTH
urban intervention, hecho en casa fest - toma
nov 2013 santiago
The “Hecho en Casa” Festival of urban interventions launches an open competition every year. We developed one of the selected projects. We chose a specific site, a residual plot from the urban transportation projects, a place with no use, abandoned in the center of the city. A few blocks away from “La Vega”, one of the biggest open markets of Santiago, and “Estacion Mapocho”, a few steps from one of the largest Cultural Centers in the city. The project proposes a labyrinth, made of modular wooden frame panels covered by a red translucent plastic textile. The labyrinth is the only architecture without a function, a place to get lost. It is also an ironic comment about the city and the complexity of its configurations, which leaves residual space even in its most busy areas . This project transoforms one of those spaces into a place of mystery, game, trap, disorientation, loneliness and meeting.
» Hecho en Casa 13
...AND NAKED
FINALIST PROJECT AT YAP SANTIAGO, MOMA/PS1 - toma APR - JUN 2014 santiago
In 2014, TOMA was invited to take part in the YAP Santiago competition. Our attention was immediately over the territory to be intervened. Parque Araucano is right in front of the remains of the utopic socialist housing project Villa San Luis, a partially realized project of Allende’s government. It is also a few steps away from the towers of Nueva Las Condes, the thriving new economic district of Santiago. The proposal is a story, a tale about this specific location situated between the real and the utopic, between the pain and the game: it is ultimately an attempt to unmask hidden histories and free the imagination. And Naked seeks to activate a place not only by making it habitable: is also make it speak about its past and its possible futures.
PLANTA 1 ESCALA 1:100
The design of the project recovers traces from the history of the context, from its future, present and past. The facade of the Villa San Luis housing project is used as a support of the project in the ground, above this broken and reconstructed facade appears eight wooden characters, between bridges and platforms that serve as observation points and places for discussion about Santiago and its future.
Âť YAP 14
ENDOGAMIA
sound space installation, mac - sofia balbontín & mathias klenner DIc 2016 santiago
In December 2016, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Santiago de Chile (MAC) presented the exhibition Cruces Sonoros: Mundos posibles (Sound crossings: Possible worlds), which sought to generate an interdisciplinary and aesthetic blend, with sound as a convergence point in the artistic field. “Endogamia” was the winning project to create a site-specific sound piece for the Hall of the Museum during the exhibition . “Endogamia” (endogamy) was a sound-space art installation at the Contemporary Art Museum of Chile, a concert of acoustic feedbacks using the hall of the museum as an acoustic box of reverberation. The experiment works with the echoes of the place, and creates an acoustic space from its own “silence”, which is captured through microphones and returned to the space by speakers, bounces in space and comes back to the microphones in the form of sound. Endogamy is the reproduction within the same family members, which eventually causes the degeneration of the genetic material. The concept was used to study the relationship between sound and space. Stimulating the exponential reproduction of space sound through electroacoustic transducers that pick up sound (microphones) and reproduce it (speakers), creating an audio feedback in space that we call sound endogamy.
» Video » Press 15
QUIMEROTROPO
urban intervention WORKSHOP, xx ARCHITECTURE biennial OF CHILE - udla, mathias klenner Oct - nov 2017 VALPARAÍSO
The Nucleus of Research in Language and Creation with the students of the School of Architecture of the Universidad de las Américas (UDLA), developed an Installation inside the tunnel of the Polanco public elevator of Valparaíso, in the framework of the XX Architecture Biennial of Chile. The built urban intervention proposes to work around the Polanco Hill and its inhabitants, showcasing the tunnel as a space of the daily living of the community, using its structure as means of sound and light propagation of its own sonorities and imaginaries. This action declares the importance of this urban space and its community, in the face of the processes of abandonment and creative destruction occurring in the port city. The installation featured a series of anamorphic figures made of led strips, to frame the access of the tunnel, highlighting the act of the people who enter and leave this space, programmed to interact with them. In addition, the installation featured a soundscape made of the sounds around the elevator: the footsteps, the water inside the tunnel, stories of the neighbors and sounds of the environment. The workshop to create the project occurred from October 23-28th, and the installation remained open for a period of two weeks. The workshop was divided in 4 teams: 1. Programming and Interaction 2. Soundscape 3. Installation and Layout 4. Socialization and Urban Memory
» Press 16
COMMUNITY INTERVENTION STUDIO
school of architecture UDLA - juan pablo corvalán & mathias klenner mar 2016 - aug 2017 santiago
The Community Intervention Program of UDLA, proposes to create a link within the academic world and local communities in conditions of urban inequality. On the one hand, the students apply their academic knowledge to generate critical projects in specific neighborhoods, working along side with the communities. On the other hand, the communities become teachers as they transfer their empirical knowledge to the students. The Faculty of Health, Social Sciences and Architecture, Design and Construction took part of the program. The Community Intervention Studio is part of the practical diploma project mode of the Architecture Undergraduate Program of the “Universidad de las Américas” (UDLA) and concludes in small built projects by students with a valuable contribution to urban segregated communities in the Santiago Metropolitan area. In this particular architecture studio, the idea is to coresearch, co-design and co-build a public, community and site-specific infrastructure or intervention, with the community involved. The intervention needs to be critical to the socio-spatial conflicts in the assigned territory, and also needs to be rooted on the memory of the place and its inhabitants. The first Community Intervention Studio, was initiated with the architect Juan Pablo Corvalán as co-professor in 2016. Working in the district of “La Florida” in the neighborhood of “Los Húsares”, finishing in the middle of 2017.
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CONSTRUCTOS SONOROS
WORKSHOP IN DESFASE FESTIVAL, UDLA - sofia balbontín & mathias klenner OCT 2016 santiago
The “Constructos Sonoros” workshop was developed at the Universidad de las Américas, in the School of Architecture for first and second year students. This experimental activity explored the disciplinary crossings between space and sound. The workshop’s program consisted of one intensive week of: 1. Prototypes Design, 2. Prototypes Construction, 3. Prototypes Interpretation, 4. Design of a sound installation at the rooftop of the School, 5. Construction of sound installation, 6. Elaboration of an orchestral piece of five acts, 7. Performance of the orchestral work by the students. The final performance was part of the “Desfase” Sound, Space and Body Festival, developed by TOMA with UDLA. There were six sound prototypes developed, and four of them were selected for the sound installation design. The main goal of this activity was to build a sound space installation where the same components that configurated space could be an interactive sound instrument, which students could play.
» Video 18
THE ROOFTOP
URBAN LABORATORY, DIANA CULTURAL CENTRE - toma 2014 santiago
La Azotea (The Rooftop) was a project developed by TOMA between March to September 2014. Was an urban laboratory which occupied the rooftop of an old monastery, currently called Diana Cultural Center. The Rooftop would be built as an occasional city, an urban utopia in the San Diego district, downtown of Santiago de Chile, which tried to inquire about the future of our cities. For seven months, different groups and entities created projects of territorial research, citizen participation, architectural workshops and cultural activities. The School of Architecture of the Universidad Finnis Terrae (UFT) leaded by the architect Pablo Brugnoli and TOMA, made a research project called “La colaboración en la construcción de espacios temporales” which focused on all the actions that occurred inside The Rooftop project and the urban and social context around it. This research was made with the students of the school of architecture in a workshop called Territorial Reorganizations. The project also included the participation of the 4th year design studio of the School of Architecture of the Universidad de Chile, leaded by the architect Rodrigo Toro and TOMA. For funding the construction of The Rooftop, TOMA along with the Diana Cultural Center developed several cultural activities, including community meals, concerts and dissertations about the project. Associated Collaborators: School of Architecture of the Universidad Finnis Terrae, School of Architecture of the Universidad de Chile, Denise Elphick and Diana Santiago Cultural Center.
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URBAN EXPLORATIONS
ACADEMIC COURSE, EXU COLLECTIVE - toma
2013 - 2015 santiago
Urban Explorations was an interdisciplinary collective who operates in Santiago de Chile. It develops urban territorial research through the act of walking as a research tool, imparting classes and workshops in several universities. Members: Camila Kuncar, TOMA, Jimena Hevia, Maria José Araya, Pablo Bustamante and Pauline Claramunt. The Urban Exploration collective was formed in 2013 and from the beginning it has imparted lectures in different universities, where the students have become part of the researches made by walking. Since the second semester of 2013 to 2015 the EXU collective has taught an alternative lecture in the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism of the Universidad de Chile (UCH). This course mixes theoretical lessons with walks through the city with a research objective determined by the students. The final examination is a collective exposure of the research made by the students, usually this research turns into an experimental cartography. This course was also dictated during the first semester of 2014 in the Faculty of Arts, Design and Architecture of the Universidad de las Artes y las Comunicaciones (UNIACC) and in the School of Architecture of the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM). EXU also has made several public walks with specific routes of research, linking public institutions with peripheral neighborhoods.
» EXU » Video 20
THE HEADQUARTERS
EXPERIMENTAL WORKSHOP, UDLA - toma OCT - DIC 2015 santiago
The School of Architecture of UDLA (Universidad de las Americas) commissioned TOMA to lead a new infrastructural intervention at the rooftop of its campus in the district of Providencia, Santiago de Chile. The project scope was to develop a space for creation, recreation and experimentation for the students. The intervention was intended to house various programs and also to foster further cultural development; generating a community gathering space and a prototype laboratory. TOMA developed a workshop consisting of two stages: Imaginary and Community Linkage, and Design and Construction. During the first stage, the students got to a definition of the program and a first design through a number of activities and products; surveys, models, a theater play, a public event, a Manifesto, etc. As the first stage finished, the program was defined: The Students Headquarters, a place made by and for them, an infrastructure that aims to trigger a new empowered organization. In the second phase, the students designed and built the Headquarters, stablished the protocols of its functioning and presented the project to the community.
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mathiasklenner@gmail.com / +569 8838 6841 Santiago de Chile 2018