Unidad Vecinal Portales, Brutalist residential complex in Santiago, Chile

Unidad Vecinal Portales is a housing estate of 1,940 dwellings on a 31-hectare site in Estación Central, Santiago, of which 6.2 hectares are built. Its 19 blocks mix one- and two-storey houses with simple and duplex apartments in buildings of five to seven storeys, laid out by the B.V.C.H. office between 1954 and 1966. The photographed block shows a grid facade of pale cream concrete with grey, blue, yellow and reddish-brown infill panels, glazed screens and solid balcony railings, its base partly hidden by dense vegetation.

The project began in 1954 when a university sold the land to a housing partnership in response to Santiago's shortage of homes caused by migration from rural areas. It was designed to quickly house many families in modern dwellings.

The complex takes its name from Avenida Portales, one of the streets bounding its polygon, and its residents know it as Villa Portales. The 31-hectare site was sold by the Universidad de Chile to EMPART, the pension fund for private employees, which commissioned the B.V.C.H. office. The 1,940 dwellings, from one- and two-storey houses to five- to seven-storey blocks, were built between 1954 and 1966.

The complex lies within the polygon formed by El Belloto, Las Sophoras, El Arrayán, Las Encinas, Av. Portales and General Velásquez, in Estación Central, bordering the Universidad de Santiago to the south and east and Quinta Normal to the north and west. Of its 31 hectares, only 6.2 are built, so most of the site is open ground between the 19 blocks. Approach on foot from the university side to read the layout.

The complex was commissioned by EMPART, the pension fund for private employees, which split a plot sold by the University of Chile among three of its societies; the B.V.C.H. office (Bresciani, Valdés, Castillo, Huidobro) received one of the commissions. Construction ran from 1954 to 1966 on a 31-hectare site, of which only 6.2 hectares were built on.