SkiBox Portillo

SkiBox Portillo in Portillo, Chile by Del Río-Núñez Architects

The following text and images are courtesy dRN Architects for their SkiBox Portillo project.

We were invited by the Hotel Portillo -- located at el. +3000m in The Andes mountain range -- to develop a strategy in which the Hotel would locate its future constructions and facilities beyond the old building. These included small, dispersed satellites in the mountain that will protect the stations that accompany the ferry cables and basic services for skiers and ski patrols. This demanded a clear constructive strategy, the superposition of two different constructive layers: a stone podium that would anchor the building to the ground and a lighter steel and glass box atop it. The relation of the two structures would be through expanded joints, making each element independent, and fracturing the reading of the box.

The parts would be organized in a clear horizontal stratification, establishing a similarity with the proportions of the hotel. Finally, visually, we aimed for a form that had more relation with a technical container than with the romantic preconception of a mountain cottage.

The first testing of those ideas was made with the construction of the SkiBox, a programmatic hybrid of 110 m2 with toilets for skiers, a cafeteria and an office for ski patrols.

The toilets are located on the first floor, inside the podium that settles the construction with the irregular topography. The extended proportion of the wall lightens its relation with the superior box, uniting it to the landscape. The stone used is obtained from the site and was worked without greater precision, helping to dilute the volume in the surrounding landscape in the months without snow.

In a second level, over the podium, are arranged the office for the ski patrols, a small warehouse, and the cafeteria. The box is constructed with a steel structure, oxidized steel boards, and glass. The color of oxide resembles the color of rocks of the mountain, so although there is a contrast between the defined geometry of the volume and the landscape, there is a chromatic affinity with it. The gap between the boards accentuates the idea of a construction by layers, the same way in which mountain clothes are made. The inert materials, rock and steel, will age well under the extreme climatic conditions of the mountain. Their sediments will add the benefit of time.