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Yungay Lofts: if IKEA Designed Lofts

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Rearquitectura have created the Yungay lofts in a South American port city with an interesting past.

The lofts are set near the ocean in Valparaíso, Chile, one of the largest Chilean ports in the Pacific Ocean.

Valparaíso bay was originally populated by Indians; the agricultural Picunches and the nomadic Changos who fished along the coast.

Then it was settled by the Spanish, but it remained provincial.

Next came the Swiss, German, French, Italian and English immigrants and the little port town grew rapidly.

This Northern European influence is what is reflected in these cheerful and colorful lofts.

If IKEA designed apartments, surely this is what they would look like.

The building contains 20 lofts, and 11 of these are three-story lofts, each one with a roof-top terrace and a wide view towards the ocean.

The interiors are spartan and democratic.

Sited on the winding hilly streets of Valparaíso, the lofts also reflect the colonial past of an isolated port town.

At one time, sailors sauntered down these old roads to the sea.

Through the 19th century, Valparaíso was a major stopover for ships traveling between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans through the Straits of Magellan.

Following the slope of the hill, its central corridors have a series of short steps up.

Looking out from the IKEA-like interior, the older Spanish influence is glimpsed across the way.

Lofts Yungay II is a little slice of Northern Europe in South America.