Studio CL, Chile: Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2022
Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory is our annual round-up of exciting emerging architecture studios. Meet Studio CL from Chile, part of our 2022 list, and explore its boutique apartment building in Santiago

Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Thank you for signing up to Wallpaper. You will receive a verification email shortly.
There was a problem. Please refresh the page and try again.
Daniel Lazo and Gabriel Cáceres and their Chile-based studio join the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory 2022, our annual list of exciting emerging practices from across the globe. The partners love exploring materials and spatial approaches that make urban life better, and their DSP Residential Building in Santiago is a key example.
Who: Studio CL
Chile’s Studio CL was founded in 2012 by architects and friends Daniel Lazo and Gabriel Cáceres. ‘We approach design as an editing process: a search for the essential elements involved in communicating an idea, from conceptual to technical,’ they say. ‘It involves constant revising, and excision of the dispensable. We aim not only for our design solutions to look simple, but to be simple in their manufacture. We strive for elegant solutions that achieve multiple goals in a single movement. Our pursuit is a raw, abstract design quality, a sort of nakedness.’
The duo work on a variety of projects, but housing takes a special place in their hearts. Working with urban plots is also an area of interest; they enjoy tackling the challenges of city life and see architecture as a tool for shaping and improving urban living. Their recent work for innovative developer Ochoalcubo – DSP Residential Building (pictured) – is a key example. Public space design is another field in which Studio CL strives to excel, using Santiago as a case study: the city is 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. As a byproduct, our work is not bound to any specific architectural scale or niche,’ they say.
What: DSP Residential Building
Located in Chile’s capital, Santiago, in a part of the formerly neglected downtown area called Barrio Italia, DSP, a boutique apartment building, puts forward a model of compact and sustainable multi-family housing. The neighbourhood in which it sits has experienced intense urban development in recent years, offering both challenges and opportunities for architects, developers and inhabitants alike. ‘Along with the positive outcomes – like the reappreciation of public space and urban life – rising real estate prices and rents are making it increasingly difficult for new urbanites to find housing, while predatory urban development practices threaten to erase the very character that brought them to these neighbourhoods in the first place,’ say the architects.
Responding to these conditions, Studio CL created DSP for design-led real estate project Ochoalcubo, which is behind a string of dramatic architect-led villas on the ragged Chilean coast by studios such as Elemental and Ryue Nishizawa. The new building, surgically fitted in a plot that used to be occupied by a single house, is ‘an exercise in micro-scale density’, explain the team. It contains three apartments of different sizes, arranged around a central circulation core – a steel-plate staircase painted bright blue. And while the main structure is made of precast concrete, the building’s exterior is wrapped in a delicate aluminium veil that covers both the front and back façades, providing shade and privacy from the street.
Why: Architects Directory 2022
Conceived in 2000 as an international index of emerging architectural talent, the Wallpaper* Architects’ Directory is our annual listing of promising practices from across the globe. While always championing the best and most promising young studios, over the years, the project has showcased inspiring work with an emphasis on the residential realm. Now including more than 500 alumni, the Architects’ Directory is back for its 22nd edition. Join us as we launch this year’s survey – 20 young studios from Australia, Belgium, Canada, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Ecuador, France, Greece, India, Indonesia, Japan, Nigeria, Paraguay, Thailand, the UAE, the UK, the USA, and Vietnam with plenty of promise, ideas and exciting architecture.
INFORMATION
Wallpaper* Newsletter
Receive our daily digest of inspiration, escapism and design stories from around the world direct to your inbox
Ellie Stathaki is the Architecture Editor at Wallpaper*. She trained as an architect at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki in Greece and studied architectural history at the Bartlett in London. Now an established journalist, she has been a member of the Wallpaper* team since 2006, visiting buildings across the globe and interviewing leading architects such as Tadao Ando and Rem Koolhaas. Ellie has also taken part in judging panels, moderated events, curated shows and contributed in books, such as The Contemporary House (Thames & Hudson, 2018) and Glenn Sestig Architecture Diary (2020).
-
Ronan Bouroullec book merges art, design and everyday life
‘Ronan Bouroullec: Day After Day’, from Phaidon, is a visual inventory of the French designer’s work, artistic output and daily inspiration
By Rosa Bertoli Published
-
Inside the gleaming new Comme des Garçons store in Paris
Comme des Garçons reveals a four-storey new retail space in Paris, housing lines previously only available in Japan, as well as exclusive reissues of Rei Kawakubo’s collectible furniture
By Jack Moss Published
-
Eva Jospin and Ruinart put the fizz in Frieze London 2023
Champagne house Ruinart brings artist Eva Jospin’s vision of its terroir to Frieze London 2023, and celebrates with a limited edition Jeroboam of Ruinart Blanc de Blancs
By Simon Mills Published
-
The finest brutalist architecture in London and beyond
For some of the world's finest brutalist architecture in London and beyond, scroll below. Can’t get enough of brutalism? Neither can we.
By Jonathan Bell Published
-
Modernist architecture: inspiration from across the globe
Modernist architecture has had a tremendous influence on today’s built environment, making these midcentury marvels some of the most closely studied 20th-century buildings; check back soon for new additions to our list
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Minimalist architecture: homes that inspire calm
These examples of minimalist architecture place life in the foreground – clutter is demoted; joy promoted
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
The iconic British house: key examples explored
New book ‘The Iconic British House’ by Dominic Bradbury explores the country’s best residential examples since 1900
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Loyle Carner’s Reading Festival 2023 stage presents spatial storytelling at its finest
We talk to Loyle Carner and The Unlimited Dreams Company (UDC) about the musical artist’s stage set design for Reading Festival 2023
By Teshome Douglas-Campbell Published
-
The Leaf is a feat of engineering and an ode to the Canadian Prairies
The Leaf in Winnipeg, Canada, is the first interactive horticultural attraction of its kind: a garden and greenhouse complex promoting a better understanding of how people can connect with plants
By Adrian Madlener Published
-
Behind the V&A East Museum’s pleated façade
Behind the new V&A East Museum’s intricate façade is a space for the imagination to unfold
By Ellie Stathaki Published
-
Casa Monoculo offers a take on treetop living in Brazil
Casa Monoculo by architect Alan Chu is a house raised above the treetops in Alto Paraiso City, Brazil
By Ellie Stathaki Published