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Today, Friday, May 20, the National Board of the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile announced Fernando Pérez Oyarzún as the winner of the 2022 National Architecture Prize—the highest honor an architect can receive in Chile, previously awarded to prominent figures such as Germán del Sol, Enrique Browne, Teodoro Fernández Larrañaga, and Edward Rojas Vega, among others.
According to the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile, the National Architecture Prize is awarded to an architect or team "whose career and ethical and professional performance have set an example for all architects, in any of the manifestations of professional practice, whether in architectural execution, academia, association leadership, public service, or management."
Official biography published by the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile:
Few figures in Chile have explored as consistently as architect Fernando Pérez Oyarzún the countless possibilities that architecture opens up as a field of action of all kinds. Indeed, one of architecture's defining characteristics is its nature as an incredibly open discipline, embracing both artistic and technical creation, historical studies and philosophical speculation, and private enterprise and public management. While its practice undoubtedly has a personal dimension, there are countless ways to make this dimension collective. It is rare, however, for this openness to manifest so clearly within the career and work of a single person.
In this regard, Pérez Oyarzún has shown a strong attraction to multiplicity and a rejection of any reductive approach, combined with a particular talent for addressing the challenges that such a stance entails.
Pérez Oyarzún graduated as an architect from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (PUC) in 1977 and earned his PhD in Architecture from the Escuela Técnica Superior de Arquitectura de Barcelona in 1981. He served as dean of the Faculty of Architecture and Fine Arts at PUC between 1990 and 2000, where he has taught since 1974 and is currently a tenured professor. Additionally, he was the director of the PUC School of Architecture from 1987 to 1990 and director of the Cultural Heritage Center at the same institution.
He has been a Visiting Design Critic at Harvard University (1990), a Visiting Fellow at the Centre of Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge (1996), and the Simón Bolívar Professor at the same university (2000). In 2007, he was a Research Fellow at the Swedish Center for Advanced Study.
Pérez Oyarzún's theoretical output has had a tremendous impact in the Spanish-speaking world, serving as a benchmark for a rigorous yet philosophically minded approach to architectural history that precisely balances local insight with an international perspective.
Many of his works had the foresight to address topics that would later become widely established in architectural culture. For example, his book Le Corbusier y Sud América (Ediciones ARQ, 1991), an early work for which he served as editor and contributor, laid the groundwork for a subject that later became recurrent and central to the history of Latin American architecture. The same can be said of his publications on the Valparaíso School or Juan Borchers, which helped showcase the depth and originality of Chilean avant-garde movements on the international stage.
His latest work, Arquitectura en el Chile del siglo XX (Ediciones ARQ, 2016)—of which three volumes have been published and two more are in progress—is also destined to be an irreplaceable piece in the construction of Chilean and Latin American culture.
His other publications include Christian de Groote: La Arquitectura de Tres Décadas de Trabajo (Ediciones ARQ, 1993); Los Hechos de la Arquitectura (co-authored with Alejandro Aravena and José Quintanilla) (Ediciones ARQ, 1999); El Espejo y el Manto: Ortodoxia/Heterodoxia (Ediciones ARQ, 2014); and Emilio Jequier: La construcción de un patrimonio (Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 2021).
He has published articles in journals such as Casabella, Arquitectura Viva, Projeto, Block, Harvard Architecture Review, CA, and ARQ.
Furthermore, Pérez Oyarzún has dedicated nearly fifty years to teaching architecture. His work spans all levels of education, from introductory graduate school courses to doctoral programs. His academic activities have also expanded internationally, serving as a guest professor at Harvard University, Rio Grande do Sul, Roma Tre, and Cambridge, among others. Notably, he was appointed Simon Bolívar Professor at the Centre of Latin American Studies at the University of Cambridge (2000-2001). This chair has previously been held by prominent figures such as Octavio Paz, Mario Vargas Llosa, Celso Furtado, Fernando Henrique Cardozo, Carlos Fuentes, Beatriz Sarlo, and, more recently, Diamela Eltit.
His extensive career in architectural criticism, history, and demanding administrative roles has been accompanied by active professional practice. Works like the School of Medicine and the Biomedical Library, both built for the Central Campus of the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile in collaboration with Alejandro Aravena, are responses of undeniable architectural quality and technical precision.
Other notable projects include the Nuestra Señora de la Esperanza Cancer Center (1995–1997) (with Tomás dalla Porta, Osvaldo Muñoz, and the DPI Team); Faculty of Arts Academic Building (2013–2015) (with José Quintanilla and the DESE Team); and the Oriente Extension Center: Facade Building and Covered Courtyard (2015–2019) (with José Quintanilla; Juan Eduardo Ojeda, collaborator; Ramón López, advisor; and the DESE Team).
The clarity of his approach and his attention to detail reflect the same spirit found in his essays and written work. This creates an uncommon convergence between the written word and construction—a characteristic Alberti identified with "learned architecture"—which is easily recognized in Pérez Oyarzún's creations.
In his recent work, this convergence has deepened, aligning with the essential path for the present and future of our discipline: the integration of design and research. This is particularly evident in his heritage interventions, such as those at the Basílica del Salvador, the Metropolitan Cathedral, and his advisory work for the restoration of Palacio Pereira.
His numerous awards include the Sergio Larraín García-Moreno Prize from the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile (2010), the Award for Teaching Excellence from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile (2012), the Arquitecto Mayor Award from Universidad Mayor (2014), an Honorary Nomination as Curator of the Artistic and Heritage Assets of the Santiago Cathedral (2016), and the AOA Medal for Academic Career (2019).
He is currently the Director of the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes (MNBA).
This article was written by Fabian Dejtiar. The translation is powered by AI.
.jpg?1653069637 "Fernando Pérez Oyarzún, National Architecture Award of Chile 2022")
