Interview with architect Cazú Zegers

Chilean native Cazu Zegers, the architect behind Magnolia Hotel, has completed numerous projects and constructed several buildings in South America. The themes of her work derive from Art, Imagination, Rigour and Love. Find out more about her passions, the inspiration and approach behind Magnolia Hotel, plus what she’s working on next.

Tell us about yourself.

That’s a very open question – I am a woman, an architect, and an artist with a fiercely artistic approach to life and the creative process; all my projects need to be conceived from a starting concept. The name of the project is always connected in some way with the concept that underlies it.

At the same time, I’m a keen adventurer with a strong passion for nature and the outdoors, I’m an extreme skier, a dancer and very interested in physics and the metaphysical. I love traveling, music, cinema and dancing. I have one daughter, Clara (25), and a dog, Atilio. I love spending time with friends but enjoy the solitude of creation.

My home, Casa Soplo, (read more on Archdaily) is my sanctuary, connected to the mountains, I try to grow everything that I eat in my garden.

What was the inspiration behind Magnolia Hotel?

They are many interesting stories to do with this project, the first of which is that the architect of the original building, Eduardo Costaval Zegers, was my grand-uncle and the structural engineer was my grandfather, Alfonso Zegers Baeza. It’s a complete coincidence that I happened to be the architect for the restoration.

When I was contacted about the project my first thought was that the building had the “perfect proportions”, the big challenge was to build three new floors on top of it. Then, of course, there was the opportunity to reclaim the previous intellectual and cultural movement that had been associated with the city center, mainly with the Municipal Theater which is nearby.

It also was an opportunity to build within our traditions; although Chile has only been a country for 200 years, and because of all the earthquakes we don’t really have any great love for tradition, so I really wanted to make a statement about this. And of course, there is a requirement to provide the best rooms possible, with a lot of charm and creativity. Very much to do with the concept of being a small neighborhood hotel, local and friendly, but sophisticated at the same time.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BILC8VChK73/

How did you approach the project?

As I said, the most difficult challenge was to build three new floors over the ‘perfect’ original building. Then to introduce light into the “catacomb”, the original building, as with all buildings of that time, had very little natural light and ventilation. So I decided to work with the existing courtyards and open them up to the sky, this idea took the form of an old attic that is clad with wood, the new rooms are also completely covered with wood; the floor, walls and ceiling, so you have the sense of being in an old house in Valparaiso.

I also decided to reuse the old timber flooring, untreated, just the way it was in order to cover the walls of public spaces.

The architecture, decoration and graphic design of the hotel branding follow the same concepts, so all the parts are in harmony, a dialogue between the traditional and the contemporary.