Aonni Mineral Water Plant

Bebin & Saxton

ARCHITECTS
Daniel Bebin y Tomás Saxton

PHOTOGRAPHS
Franklin Pardon Daniel Bebin

AREA
5000.0 m2

YEAR
2008

CATEGORY
Industrial Architecture

LOCATION
Punta Arenas, Chile

Text description provided by architect.

Chilean Patagonia has a particularity that is distinguished and exclusively of that place: THE DETACHMENT.

We can notice disunity, a separation of what was linked before, the surrounding elements live in constant alteration.

his detachment produces cracks, isolations, torsions, new tensions.

The glaciers detach from the massive ice fields, the trees get inclined by winds, the islands live separated from the land surrounded by water, and the geography is the result of energic erosions.

Therefore, the project is generated from the interactions of natural environment forces, revealing the elements detachment.

The project also makes use of the natural elements as vital energy expressing particular characteristics of a territory.

Sustainable design principles as natural lighting, high internal gains and a good daylight factor can be recognized in the project.

Furthermore, the structure can be reutilized, guarantying a long life cycle for the materials used in this building.

We can also notice The Water in their different phases harvesting one of them: the iced water produce a unique single structure, recognized in that specific location. These forms are materialized on the large glass areas of the windows and the shape of the floors.

The materials used are part of Patagonia’s modern history: a resistant material, flexible, economic and with low cost maintenance capable to tolerate the extreme climatic conditions.