The sport has its origins in ancient Greece, where young men underwent intense physical and mental training for warfare. The origin of gymnastics © James Matsumoto/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty ImagesĪ man wearing a facemask walks behind the Olympic symbols of the five interlaced rings near the National Stadium in Tokyo. But during its evolution from ancient Greek tradition to modern Olympic sport, gymnastics has always been closely paired with ideas of national pride and identity. It hasn’t always included the uneven bars or balance beam-early iterations included feats like rope climbing and swinging clubs. With the dominance of athletes like Simone Biles and Kohei Uchimura, the sport has become one of the Olympic Games’ most beloved. These images aren’t random-they’re all part of the history of gymnastics. Diminutive teenagers rocketing off of the ground into a dizzying sequence of flips and jumps. Stalwart bodyguards at Abraham Lincoln’s inauguration. His work has appeared in multiple national and international publications.© Photograph via Topical Press Agency/Getty ImagesĪ Danish gymnast performing a perfect dismount from a pommel horse during the 1908 London Olympics. He was a finalist of the International competition “Espacio para la Memoria del Poeta Pablo Neruda” in Cantalao, Isla Negra (2008) and won second prize in the public competition “Intervencion Costanera Norte” sponsored by the Chilean Ministry of Public Infrastructure, Santiago de Chile (2007). Since 2016 he teaches second year Architecture Design Studio at Universidad San Sebastian.ĭaniel designed the Faculty of Sciences building for Universidad Austral in Valdivia, Chile as Associate Architect of Tidy Architects, a project won through public competition (2009-2011). Through private commission he restored a heritage residence in Wisbaden, Germany (2009).ĭaniel Lazo (1981) graduated from the Architecture School of Universidad de Chile (2006). With architect Sebastian Bravo he designed and renovated the BIOTEC factory in Renca, Santiago (2010). With Paula Rojas, as associate architects of P&G architects, he developed the design scheme for the headquarters of Preunic, Santiago de Chile (2010). Gabriel won the Yumbel Social Housing project in Biobío, Chile (2011) through public competition working with AMDEL (The Association of Municipalities for Local Development) in the design of a self-construction housing initiative. Gabriel Caceres (1979) graduated from the Architecture School of Universidad de Chile (2006), and has a Master of Architecture in Collective Housing from Universidad Politecnica de Madrid, Spain (2009). Our current projects range from a large-scale mixed-use complex in the heart of Barrio Italia, Santiago’s design district to a family residence in the outskirts of the city. As a byproduct, our work is not bound to any specific architectural scale or niche. Santiago is an interesting case study for us in that sense, as it’s going through an accelerated process of change without a clear model for the city it wants to be, but with a lot of room for improvement. Our main interests lay within the realm of the city and urban life as a social construct: density as a tool for shaping it, public space as a place of social engagement and friction, public-private relationships and all the in-betweens. Our pursuit with this approach is a raw, abstract design quality. A sort of nakedness.
#CL STUDIO GYMNASTIC PROFESSIONAL#
We strive for the skillful elegance of professional athletes, able to achieve multiple goals with a single movement. Because of this, our work is often painstakingly detailed, aiming not only for our design solutions to look simple, but to be simple in their manufacture. It involves constant revising and excision of the dispensable. We approach design as an editing process: a search for the essential elements involved in communicating an idea, from the conceptual to technical. SCL is a boutique architecture practice based in Santiago de Chile and founded by Daniel Lazo and Gabriel Caceres in 2012.