The climate crisis, resource scarcity, and socio-spatial inequality are among the challenges currently facing the architectural discipline and the construction industry. In the Chilean Altiplano—a territory marked by a wealth of natural and cultural treasures contrasting with the scarce natural resources of the desert—the Fundación Altiplano invites us to rethink heritage restoration through the lens of sustainability, community-based conservation, and participatory processes. Developed and implemented alongside the communities themselves, this model leverages ancestral knowledge and local materials, offering not only answers but also critical questions for navigating our turbulent contemporary context.

In the context of the current health crisis, the new edition of Open House Santiago (OH! Stgo) will be dedicated to “The City and Care” as a way to create inclusive opportunities that bring people together in buildings that are typically closed to the public. Scheduled from Friday, January 14 to Sunday, January 23, 2022, the event will focus this time on priority groups such as older adults, people with disabilities, and children. Organized by Fundación Aldea, the initiative has celebrated the contemporary city since 2017 through events aimed at providing citizens with practical knowledge about Santiago's architecture, urban design, and environment through its various urban landmarks.

Creating a public space capable of reclaiming the neighborhood's heritage value while fostering participation and community appropriation among local residents was one of the primary goals driving the creation of the Zenteno Cultural Plaza. It is part of a balanced densification project that seeks to integrate local historical and cultural heritage while designing flexible, integrated spaces. Carried out by Activa Inmobiliaria, the project also enabled the preservation of the "Inmaculado Corazón de María" Basilica, a heritage building adjacent to the new plaza. Located in the historic center of Santiago, at the corner of Zenteno and Copiapó streets, the project freed up an area previously occupied by a warehouse building to expose and restore the brick facade of the basilica, which was declared a historic monument in 1987.

Centro Tierra is a multidisciplinary research group at the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú dedicated to the research, implementation, and dissemination of knowledge related to earth architecture and the use of local materials. Based on research centered on earth as the primary building material, the team engages with local cultures in Peru and the Altiplano through their distinct, diverse building techniques. Within this framework, they design sustainable construction proposals focused on rural habitats and built cultural heritage, emphasizing conservation, optimization, and revitalization. In turn, findings from research on bioclimatic and seismic-resistant design are put into practice through participatory processes. These initiatives foster knowledge exchange, weaving together local building heritage with academic technological innovation.

The CA Awards, organized and curated by the Colegio de Arquitectos de Chile, aim to recognize professionals who stand out for their "excellence, work, and contribution" to the field of architecture across the country. Marking the end of the institution's 79th anniversary celebrations and Architecture Month, the awards honored 12 members who, according to the National Board, are "role models for architects throughout the country." See below the awards and distinctions for each category in this new 2021 edition.

Paste Up, a festival that brings the selected works of six local visual artists to the streets of Santiago, Chile, launched an outdoor route in early December hosted on a series of iconic buildings in the municipality of Vitacura. Renowned urban artist and photographer Caiozzama, whose artistic interventions became icons of the 2019 social uprisings, curated and edited the pieces. The process of translating various sizes and techniques into large-format works also includes the subsequent recycling of the large-scale prints, which will be on display until the end of February. The artists who participated in this edition of the festival are Fab Ciraolo, Bruna Truffa, Juana Gómez, Cecilia Avendaño Bobilier, and Santiago Ascui. Learn more about the works and the urban art route below.

For more than three decades, Chile's Norte Grande region positioned itself as an important modern laboratory and a hub of development on both a national and international scale. It embodied the potential to decentralize access to services and infrastructure, as well as territorial management itself. Driven by an economic boom, a project of modernity was promoted, spanning comprehensive investment plans to the management and construction of modern architecture projects. However, following the coup d'état and the subsequent militarization of the border, resources were once again concentrated in Santiago, bringing this regionalist momentum to an end. Below are details of some of these hybrid works which, shaped by both the desert climate and European influence, responded to a local context defined by an incomplete project of modernity.

Although the Olympic Pool of Arica, built in 1972 by architect Alicia Meza and former CORMU members Nelson Berthelon and Sergio Román, received widespread national and international recognition at the time, today it is far from being part of the collective imaginary of modern architecture in Chile.

The team led by Cristóbal Tirado and Sebastián Hernández won first place in the public competition for the design of the First Fire Company Station of Coyhaique, located in the Aysén Region, Chile. Launched by the Aysén Directorate of Architecture of the Ministry of Public Works (MOP) in conjunction with the Regional Government, the competition aimed to completely replace the town's First Fire Company Station. The design was required to incorporate high energy efficiency standards while enhancing the urban image of the city of Coyhaique.

Fundación Mi Parque in collaboration with Transelec, has developed a manual focusing on the technical and landscaping aspects of pruning urban trees near power transmission lines. This task is identified as an opportunity to move toward building an integrated and sustainable city image.

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The Ministry of Cultures, Arts, and Heritage, in collaboration with the developer Constructora Presidente Riesco, has signed a historic agreement to launch the restoration and preservation of the remains of Block 14, where the new museum will be located. The project will maintain the complex's original height of 10.62 meters, with a floor area of up to 800 square meters. It will be accompanied by a landscaping project across the 1,000-square-meter surrounding protected zone in the eastern sector of Santiago.

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“Shared Streets” (Calles Compartidas), a project by the Chilean Urban Innovation Lab Ciudad Emergente, was recognized at the Scroll of Honour Awards for the urban impact of transforming certain streets in Santiago, Chile, into gathering spaces capable of significantly reducing the city’s carbon footprint. The UN-Habitat initiative seeks to encourage the work of those dedicated to innovation in sustainable urban development. In this edition, the 80 nominations were evaluated based on their response to the crisis caused by the pandemic and the theme of World Habitat Day 2021, “Accelerating urban action for a carbon-free world,” as well as their potential for replicability in different cities around the world. Below, discover the five winners that stood out for the resilience, sustainability, and inclusivity of their proposals. 

The team comprising Alexis Olivares Valencia, an architecture graduate from the Universidad Tecnológica Metropolitana (UTEM), and Gonzalo Mazzey, a student at the same institution, won first place in the "A Bench in Venice" competition with their project titled “La Banca del Mundo” (The World's Bench). Within the framework of the 17th Venice Architecture Biennale, the National Pavilion of the United Arab Emirates curated by Wael Al Awar, in collaboration with the Curators Collective, launched an international open call for students. The competition challenged participants to design a bench made from recycled materials, which will be installed during the upcoming summer inside the Arsenale.

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As part of the 1st Lima International Architecture Biennial (BIALIMA), the intervention on the San Luis Building, named the Zepita Building - Bicentennial Project, received the highest honor at the 2021 Architectural Quality Competition. This competition sought to recognize exemplary cases of excellence and creativity in buildings across the Lima and Callao regions, selecting 13 winning projects across 8 different categories. 

The 2015 earthquake that struck the Coquimbo region in Chile resulted in the relocation of 88 households from the Baquedano sector to safe zones. Consequently, the Ministry of Housing and Urbanism (MINVU), through SERVIU, launched a call for proposals to design public rental housing complexes based on general design, energy efficiency, and social participation criteria.

The team composed of Fundación Urbanismo Social and Cristián Fernández Arquitectos won first place in the competition, followed by the proposal submitted by TECHO + Sabbagh Arquitectos. The winning proposal includes a community-support plan that, alongside the construction of public spaces and social housing with mitigation measures, aims to provide displaced families with a safe space to settle and rebuild a sense of community.

Launched as part of the 1st International Architecture Biennial of Lima – BIALIMA 2021, the call for entries aimed to design public infrastructure that harmoniously integrates with its natural and built surroundings to rehabilitate the stairways connecting different areas within the settlement. The international jury, composed of Michael Smith (Costa Rica), Luis Rodríguez (Peru), and Marta Morelli (Peru), selected 4 winning proposals that stood out for addressing community needs through interventions on the stairways of the San Juan de Lurigancho locality.

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As part of the 2021 CNPP National Undergraduate Project Competition organized by Grupo Arquitectura Caliente and Graphisoft Archicad, a total of 127 proposals were submitted from 20 architecture schools across Chile. The jury highlighted three projects that, through their formal and conceptual diversity, achieved the highest recognition within their respective categories. Explore the winning proposals of this latest edition of the competition below.