During the Ordinary General Assembly of Members on Thursday, April 25, the Association of Architecture Offices of Chile (AOA) held the award ceremony for the AOA Medals, alongside the formal presentation of the current AOA board of directors and the 40th edition of Revista AOA.
The AOA Medals are a biennial recognition highlighting professionals, firms, and public or private entities that have played a significant role in the development of Chilean architecture.
AOA Grand Medal: Yves Besançon
Architect and partner at the firm Alemparte Barreda Wedeles Besançon Arquitectos y Asociados (ABWB), where he has built over 3,500,000 square meters. Since 2004, he has been a graduation project professor at the Faculty of Architecture and Urbanism and an undergraduate studio professor at the same university. He is the former Director and Dean of the Faculty of Fine Arts, Architecture, and Design at UNIACC University (2002–2011).
He served as President of the Association of Architecture Offices between 2012 and 2014. Currently, he chairs the IDDEA Foundation. He is a member of the Editorial Committee, director of Revista AOA, and a member of AOA Publications. He has also directed multiple architecture competitions.
AOA Lifetime Achievement in Architecture Medal: Izquierdo Lehmann Arquitectos
The firm, which won the National Architecture Prize in 2004, was founded in 1984 by Luis Izquierdo and Antonia Lehmann. They have designed various agricultural, educational, and commercial facilities, interior architecture, office and residential buildings, more than 100 single-family homes, furniture, objects, and construction systems. Several of these works have been published in national and international specialized media, and presented at biennials, exhibitions, and conferences in Santiago, Buenos Aires, Quito, Cartagena de Indias, São Paulo, Madrid, Tokyo, Ljubljana, New York, and Boston.
AOA Academic Career Medal: Fernando Pérez Oyarzún
An architect from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile with a PhD in Architecture from the Barcelona School of Architecture. Currently, Pérez Oyarzún is an Adjunct Professor at the Universidad Católica de Chile and director of the National Museum of Fine Arts.
He served as Director of the School of Architecture (1987–1990), Dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Arts (1990–2000), and Head of the PhD Program in Architecture and Urban Studies (2014–2016) at the Universidad Católica. Additionally, he has been a Visiting Design Critic at Harvard University (1990), “Simón Bolívar Professor” at the University of Cambridge (2000), and a Fellow at the Swedish Center for Advanced Study (2007).
AOA Outstanding Young Architect Medal: LAND Arquitectos
Founded by professionals Ángela Delorenzo and Cristóbal Valenzuela, LAND is a firm of landscape architects, environmental and urban planners, artists, and advocates committed to design and innovation applied to projects that improve the relationship between the city and territory for their inhabitants. After organizing two seminars, they co-founded the Chile Lagos Limpios Foundation in early 2019, an international collaboration between Chile and California with the mission to preserve and promote sustainable development and climate resilience for the northern Patagonian lakes of Chile.
AOA Medal for Institutional Contribution to Architecture: INACAP
Presented to Rector Luis Eduardo Prieto, the award recognizes INACAP for its Infrastructure Renovation Project, which aims to provide the INACAP community with spaces that enhance their quality of life and the quality of education provided, maintaining the same standards nationwide. Now in its final stage of development, the Infrastructure Renovation Project will allow INACAP to have 29 campuses by 2020, with a built area of approximately 440,000 square meters, designed to deliver relevant, high-quality training to its more than 120,000 students across the country.
Via AOA.
This article was written by Nicolás Valencia. The translation is powered by AI.
