On the Continuity of Ideas: New Choices for Chilean Architecture
"Repetition is inverted memory..., a renewal of memory from the future. Repetition is a forward movement, the production of something new rather than the reproduction of something old. In this regard, repetition is not merely one aspect of production or the emergence of the new: the new emerges solely and exclusively through repetition." Søren Kierkegaard, from the book Repetition. One of the most enduring concerns of architecture is the tension between context and object. From one perspective, one can define topography, orientation, views, access, and the explanation that a building is a response to its site as the definition of that place rather than the definition of a work of architecture — a condition in which architecture is a reaction to the environment and a response to the context in which it is situated. External forces have always been the subject of disciplines such as sociology, politics, and anthropology, and their entry into architecture and their transformation into the most important determinants of form have turned architecture into a medium influenced by its context. Alongside the dominance of economics over spatial structures, and the resort to sustainability, efficiency, materials, capital profit, or planning, tendencies have consigned the fundamental act of architecture — the analysis of space — to oblivion. Architecture, in its internal formal structure, must be comprehended as a specific, repeatable, and autonomous grammar. Architecture as a form of knowledge, by returning to its irreducible principles and by concentrating on its structures that address concepts of space, interpretation, composition, and other aspects, creates a state of resistance against many prevailing tendencies. Since every work of architecture inevitably occupies a specific and unrepeatable situation, it establishes limited and particular relationships with its site. But when architecture is placed in an unstable, uncertain, and unusual environment, there exists no fixed rule or standard for it either; therefore, everything and everywhere can become the context and ground for the formation of architecture, and not merely its physical location — a mechanism whose functions are determined amid events and contingencies. Alternative approaches to redefining the relationship between architectural form and environment are prominently manifest in the work of a generation of contemporary Chilean architects, and this posits that by employing ever-changing interactions and conflicts, one can arrive at new spatial formulations — a detached object or apparatus that more or less withstands the problems (social, cultural, economic, or technical) of its context, influences it, disrupts the predetermined equations of the environment, and arrives at a kind of "peaceful coexistence"; architectural resistance that, by focusing on the power of space and penetrating the mysterious realm of human beings and the built environment. Rainer Maria Rilke, in Letters to a Young Poet, defines love as an agreement that protects and nurtures individuality. He opposes the "quick commonality" that leads to the dissolution of all boundaries. Rilke argues about relational concepts prevalent in architecture that "merging" leads to "accumulation" or the prohibition of freedom, which is in fact impossible. Differences and distances always exist and contribute to creating "life alongside one another." But the frequency of appearance and the return of elements in a transformed manner, and the transfer from one project to another through repetition, is to the point where the architect employs the effort of establishing "continuity" and
consequently a kind of "recognition." "Difference and repetition only appear to stand in opposition to each other. Difference, as qualitative difference in the world, cannot be realized without the presence of a kind of spontaneous repetition that accompanies the passage through diverse conditions and the creation of links among different phenomena"; repetition produces degrees of pristine difference, and difference represents one level among levels of repetition and is no less important. The ability to produce spatial types is one of the original capacities of architecture in differentiating and making repeatable its internal knowledge. In the prevailing logic of adaptability, type is one of the few concepts that elevates the capacities of architecture in its currently homogenized condition. Type can be understood as a classified sequence of objects that alternately occupy a structural hierarchy based on the degree of formation and formability and belonging to intellectual schools and related families. Quatremère de Quincy (1755–1849) regards type as a concept or intellectual project that must place itself in the service of a model as a rule, and not as mere copying or imitation. Chile's particular condition and its ecological and behavioral instability have caused architecture in this country, in its expressible form, to create a meaningful distance from the land and to produce types or spatial strategies for determining new interactions between architectural form and environment. The development of these types and strategies can be examined in two distinct categories: 1. Detachment; 2. Transaction.
Detachment. Horacio Torrent, by examining the epic poetry collection Amereida, offers an interpretation of Chilean architecture in which architectural form bonds with the land in a radical synthesis where buildings themselves become landscape. In this view, the work of architecture becomes a self-referential subject that can be read through an extensive source of internal knowledge. It is in the original patterns (the primary idea of a building) that the fundamental characteristics of a work of architecture can be read and traced — a subject that relates to the history, sequence, and systematic transfer of an architectural form, much like hereditary metamorphosis within a family. "Materials exist everywhere, just as geography exists everywhere. So it is a commonplace and superficial notion to say that the value of Chilean architecture lies in the geography in which it is situated." This statement from Mauricio Pezo emphasizes that geopolitical and locational distinctions do not point to the intrinsic values of architecture. Numerous architects, in alignment with prevalent media tendencies today, attempt to align themselves with regional characteristics, but from this perspective, architecture is based neither on concrete, nor steel, nor earthen elements. Architecture is based on wonder and mystery, which have created the greatest cities and the most magnificent spatial structures. Architecture is a narrative of struggle and endeavor against impossibilities. Pezo von Ellrichshausen represents this perspective in today's Chilean architecture. They seek to produce spatial structures — forms without context and without style
or any sign of origin. In their work, one perceives an eagerness to introduce mysterious elements, a kind of turning away from the image of contemporary architecture that has become excessively transparent and predictable — buildings that have lost their resonance in the depths of history and collective human memory. Their work cultivates various methods of reinforcing artistic autonomy and the authority of architectural structures. These architects pursue the hidden power of basic geometric configurations and archetypal images; "we extended our research to 'spatial structures,' an effort to identify those primitive mental forms (such as passage, center, periphery) and the method by which we can translate those forms into architectural representations." This interest in archetypal architecture reveals the power of geometry in architectural discourse. A collection of houses designed by these architects are exceptionally strong examples of the development of geometric patterns. The focus on plan and building section in an era when seductive three-dimensional images hold authority is a sign of architectural distinction. But how does invention occur within these basic forms with familiar geometry? In many of their projects, changes of scale and the combination of axial symmetries are observed. These calibrated forms take shape to accommodate the customary patterns of living. For instance, lines of symmetry become lines of sight or movement, or accumulated or thick forms categorize their dependent objectives: closets support workspaces, or wardrobes serve as buffers between bedrooms. Very few corridors exist in these plans; typically, porches or entrance halls combine and divide the circulatory needs of spaces. Likewise, storage and service spaces are usually added to the thickness of walls, maximizing room space as much as possible, and furniture that is not independently and centrally placed is also absorbed into the depth of walls. The part-to-whole relationship is visible in the plans of these projects and is also apparent, though different, in sections and elevations. The strategy of rising from the ground leads to the proliferation of platforms — below, within, and above the main volume of the buildings. Sometimes very similar things occur in the openings of these houses. In the Poli House, a bilateral relationship is revealed through simple gaps and sharply cut openings in the massive walls of the building. The building, like a geometrically molded piece of stone in an environment with entirely natural topology adjacent to completely variable waters, creates an intensely stark and meaningful contrast. Nevertheless, inside this house, resistance to the landscape transforms into a vast, sequence-like connection for the penetration of environment, light, air, and sound — a highly open structure that manifests itself as a receptacle; an open embrace for the entire world around it. This concept that interior and exterior must be connected is, of course, a subject of modern architecture. But seeing these openings as instruments for the presence of "flow" in the interior space with the exterior, while the thickness and sharpness of form and surfaces provide firm protection and support for its inhabitants. Merging and dissolving with the exterior environment has not occurred because no effort has been made toward it. Instead, the building tends to maintain a waiting state — like a quiet witness. This house does not impose the limitations of minimalist architecture upon itself; instead, through geometry, extension, and the variation of interior levels, spaces and surfaces have been created that provide pleasure and discovery for its inhabitants. This contrast is perceptible in an even more intense form in the Solo House — a form with pure geometry and grid-based subdivision, uniform in size and repetitive, that has placed itself in the pristine and completely natural setting of a forest. The alternation between open and closed plans and the shifting
of customary uses within a house has created a special condition in this project. At the level connected to the ground, a closed cube with only one entrance and a bilateral opening to the environment has been placed. The interaction between environment and architecture reaches its minimum degree at this connective level, and the building pounds into the ground like an independent, closed, and massive base. On the upper level, however, this connection takes on a different meaning. The closed central core, centered on a pool with determined and limited openings, and the collection of open and transparent cubes surrounding it, place public and private functions with equal value and in equal division together. The use of geometric structures for creating distance from the environment and context is also visible in Alejandro Aravena's personal works. In the Angelini Center building, the placement of a collection of pure cubes with minimal openings on exterior surfaces and the expansion of cubes at various height levels and in different directions has created an independent and iconic building in the heart of Santiago against a foreground of surrounding natural mountain ranges — basic geometry against natural geometry. In the Ochoquebradas House, separation from the environment is created by placing three solid cubic volumes irregularly atop one another. A playful relationship between natural and artificial that has been intensified in this architect's other projects through cuts and gaps within basic geometric volumes.
Transaction. "To be an architect in Chile, one must be engaged in construction, the discovery of materials, and place." This statement from Smiljan Radić expresses the interaction between architectural form and environment — a relationship that, apart from the autonomy of architectural form, seeks a kind of transaction between the two. Chile's particular spatial conditions have caused different architectural languages to be produced in this land. Attention to what is close to architecture leads to questioning the environment and the constituent materials of architecture. Chile is an elongated country between the Andes mountain range and the Pacific Ocean. Life in such a geography is propelled toward the discovery of unknown frontiers. Rodrigo Pérez de Arce places Chilean architecture between solidity and instability. In a land of earthquakes and severe climatic changes, architecture must find both poetic and practical inspirations to confront such challenges. Pérez de Arce's discussions about construction and materials in various buildings from Chile's modern period and the decades following World War II demonstrate how idea transforms into matter. In turn, this produced a highly realist architecture that accommodates itself to minimal budgets, the absence of exotic technical tools, and the constant threat of earthquakes. Raw and unfinished concrete is one of the distinctive materials in Chile because it can produce sculptural forms while
Bounded Frame, Pezo von Ellrichshausen, Chicago Architecture Biennial, 2018
The relationship between form and environment in perspectives of Santiago, Chile, 1646, source: Alonso de Ovalle
requiring less maintenance in the future and possessing the ability to resist environmental instabilities. The question about the particular character of architecture in its encounter with nature has been one of the most enduring topics in Chile. The search for spatial continuity appears to be the shared concern of these architects. These questions particularly manifest themselves further from the 1950s onward with the design of alternative houses. Emilio Duhart built his own house in 1948 with a sloping roof that covered a simple volume beneath it while simultaneously reinforcing the fluidity between living space and the existing garden. This search is clearer in the transparency of the Mingo House, while in the Duhart House it is presented through the connection of bedrooms and the living room with their exterior perspective, and in the Larraín House through the division of the existing house's interior space into a singular and continuous space. The Cruz House challenged the conventional forms of habitation and their design process — part of an urban garden's extension into two triangular forms divided by a diagonal line into two halves. The house volume was placed in one of these triangles and the other part became a patio. The house was perforated with a variety of windows, blurring the sense of recognizable floor levels, which in this respect bore great resemblance to the organization of Cubist compositions. The use of modern materials alongside traditional techniques and materials can strangely create a familiar sensation. Working with historical and architectural narratives and references, playing with them and reconstructing them, is the prevailing approach of architects such as Smiljan Radić. The semi-transparent ring of fiberglass-reinforced plastic in the Serpentine Gallery Pavilion that he designed and built rests on rocky boulders that evoke contemporary dolmens. Follies are structures that have been used throughout history in gardens and parks to present something unusual, and rock-like boulders are often used for decoration, but Radić uses them as actual structural bases for the volumes. Structure and form
in this approach are placed in a completely separate and detached manner from one another, yet in their totality they create a collage-like composition — a composition that dissolves the boundaries between architecture and nature. This is an approach that does not take shape based on architectural form, nor is it even about materials; rather, it produces a secondary structure that is a fresh narrative of architecture's relational problem. This architecture is founded upon the creation of atmosphere that attends to the user's action within the environment. Form can be anything, but this type of architecture works with recollection and memory. The overlap between interior and exterior through the function of natural elements in an artificial guise within the built environment can be the agent of constructing this architectural atmosphere. Beyond the external appearance of fragile structures, this method requires flexibility for changing a project's materials and construction techniques. In the Mestizo Restaurant, heavy stones serve on one hand as columns to support the roof structure and on the other they merge with the surrounding landscape as garden elements. The contrast between natural geometry and artificial, gridded geometry leads to the creation of different spaces with high impact — in the Chilean House, Radić detaches architectural elements and places them in an integrated composition that encompasses the surrounding nature. A singular steel beam and a perforated, semi-closed wall open the interior space of the house for the entry of the exterior environment.
The continuing effort to differentiate from dominant global currents and to produce personal approaches in the language of architecture is part of the design methods of Chilean architects. What is noteworthy in examining these personal approaches is the capacity for the continuity of ideas across conditions and historical periods. The frequency of appearance and the return of elements in a transformed manner, and the transfer
Detached relationship between form and environment, Pezo von Ellrichshausen
Angelini Center, Santiago, Chile, Alejandro Aravena
from one project to another, is the common point of these different approaches — where the architect employs the effort of establishing continuity and a kind of recognition. Difference and repetition only appear to stand in opposition to each other. Difference cannot be realized without the presence of a kind of repetition that accompanies the passage through diverse conditions and the creation of links among different phenomena. In truth, in works that are distant from one another in terms of historical hierarchy and difference of language and form, even despite diversity, the repetition of certain elements leads to the formation of hidden hereditary links across languages and times. The phenomenon of repetition is influenced by a kind of critical awareness that emerges from the direct observations of these architects in the direction of understanding and borrowing from the languages of movements that preceded them. These links lead to the influence of eras, the emergence of reactions, transformed elements, and the presentation of alternatives and new measures. It is here that certain methods, forms, and values are returned to the alphabet of architecture — an alphabet that from a historical perspective points to the present and transforms an architect's project into a part of architectural culture.
5 - Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926). One of the most important German-language poets of the twentieth century. This book has been published in Persian translation by Parviz Natel Khanlari through Moin Publications. 6 - 7 - Quick commonality 8 - Merging 9 - Repetition 10 - Quatremère de Quincy. For further reading on this topic: the article "The Architecture of the Contemporary City: Revolution or Typological Reform," 11 -
by Arash Basirat, Sharestan Magazine, issues 44–45. 12 - Detached 13 - Horacio Torrent. Professor of architecture at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and author of the book Modern Architecture in Chile since 1950. 14 - Amereida. An epic poetry collection that raises a set of questions about the heritage of Latin America.
Follies are decorative structures that, through their appearance and facade, become a collection of ornaments in gardens. 27 - 28 - Mestizo Restaurant 29 - Chilean House 30 - Permanent. Sources: Rilke, Rainer Maria. Several Letters, translated by Parviz Natel Khanlari, Moin Publications. Shafiei, Iman. "Repetition and/or Difference," Sharestan Magazine, issues 38–39. "Pezo von Ellrichshausen Dossier," Sharestan Magazine, issues 40–41. Basirat, Arash. "The Architecture of the Contemporary City: Revolution or Typological Reform," Sharestan Magazine, issues 45–46.
Ochoquebradas House, Alejandro Aravena
Serpentine Gallery Pavilion, London, Smiljan Radić