Copacabana

The Copacabana building is made up of reinforced concrete pillars and slabs. It is one of the most significant works of modernist buildings in Viña del Mar, both for its design and for its way of connecting, at its point of convergence with the mouth of the Marga-Marga estuary. Its facade has balconies that are rotated with respect to the orientation of the building, which favors the view towards the sea, and at the same time turns its back towards the city center. This feature is consistent with a groundbreaking design marked by an opaque facade, but energized by a chromatic sequence of colors. The Copacabana building is nourished by an urban atmosphere, it presents large gardens that embellish its perimeter, and by guaranteeing wide spaces to favor ventilation, isolation and access to natural light.

The building is organized based on a double surgery and a central corridor. The south surgery is interrupted to make room for a vertical circulation, where the access to the building is located. This gives the building an enjoyable light condition.

Inside, the central hall contains on its opposite sides a staircase and elevators that connect to the upper floors. The interior design, influenced by Op art, expressed in the pavement, alternates blue, black and white colors in modules, which generates that characteristic sensation of the use of geometric shapes, used by the architects of the period. The composition of the stairs and windows plays an important role in light, producing different shapes throughout the day.

The detail and the finishing touches show materials that stand out for their modular formula. The brown-toned fulget, the mahogany-colored native wood railings coexist in the same space with materials such as steel, tiles, bronze and granite. The internal aesthetics of common spaces features the use of geometric shapes, patterns or basic figures. This is reflected in the mosaics of yellow, blue, white and ivory colors that invite the viewer to participate in the visual phenomenon.

Under the same logic, the use of contrasting colors marks the interior detail of the building: the black color present in the window frames, and the white of the stairs and ceiling. It is important to highlight the maintenance conservation management, which always seeks to respect the aesthetics and original design of the building.

The Copacabana building is one of the most interesting works of aesthetic and formal design. With a marked influence of abstract art and visual art, an invitation to live a perceptual experience is incorporated into the proposal that seeks to give the viewer the impression of movement, of the existence of hidden images, of patterns of flashes and vibrations, or swelling and deformation.