The origins
The Atacamènes, present in Chile long before our era, gradually evolved from nomadic hunters to sedentary people, settling in communities of dwellings called ayllus, notably at Tulor, where the foundations of interconnected circular houses have been preserved. Some have been reconstructed, revealing mud walls and vaults. With the emergence of local powers came the first pukaras or fortresses. Most often built on hilltops, these consisted of several circular defensive walls. The Pukara de Quitor, a terraced fortress, is one of the best known. The Incas continued this tradition by building their own fortresses, such as the Huaca de Chena, whose nine enclosures are said to represent the shape of a puma. These fortresses were linked by the legendary Qhapaq Nan or Inca Trail, an astonishing network of trade, communication and defence that stretched for almost 30,000 km from Cuzco in Peru, and included stone-paved roads, canyon-side suspension bridges, steep staircases, relay posts, forts and inns.
On Easter Island, you can discover the treasures of the Pascuan civilization, whose mastery of stonework is widely acknowledged. Take a look at these imposing ahus, the platforms bearing the legendary moai, whose cyclopean stonework is entirely cement-free, using a system of mortise and tenon joints. AtOrongo, a ceremonial village, you can see some 50 semi-subterranean stone houses built on an elliptical plan and decorated with numerous petroglyphs bearing the effigy of the famous birdman. On the Ahu Tahai site, you can discover other remains of these boat-houses, or hare paenga, so nicknamed because their elliptical shape is reminiscent of a ship. Holes were drilled in the stone to insert branches connected at the top, then covered with rushes, leaves or grasses to form a secure roof. Astonishing!
Spanish influences
Throughout South America, the Spaniards used the same town-planning scheme, with large avenues and small streets or calles leading to the city's nerve center: the plaza, lined with portals or arcades, adorned with fountains and kiosks, and housing all the powers that be (cathedral, courthouse...). This pattern is found in Santiago, Valparaiso and La Serena. The streets are lined with houses of typically colonial architecture. Made of mud bricks on a stone base, with tiled roofs, their facades are colorful and adorned with balconies often supported by colonnades. But it is of course the religious heritage, the driving force behind colonization, that is the focus of all attention. The San Francisco de Santiago church impresses with its wide nave, imposing semi-circular vaults and coffered ceilings. While the major urban centers reflect European styles, certain regions of Chile have developed a surprising syncretism. TheSan Pedro church in San Pedro de Atacama, for example, combines European arches and buttresses with local adobe walls and a cactus wood framework covered in earth and straw, held together by llama leather straps!
And don't miss the superb wooden churches of the Unesco-listed Chiloé archipelago. Built on hills to serve as a landmark for sailors (and to avoid flooding!), they are distinguished by their octagonal, multi-storey bell towers whose porticos delimit a forecourt where the faithful gather, sheltered from the rain, their basilical plan with three naves separated by pillars, including the barrel-vaulted central nave, their sculpted ceilings and their wooden structure, arranged without a single nail and reminiscent of shipbuilding techniques. The oldestchurch, Santa Maria de Loreto in Achao, is also one of the most beautiful. On the island, particularly in Ancud, the Spanish erected fortifications such as Fort San Antonio, whose geometric silhouette and firing platforms can still be seen today. This type of fortification can be found throughout the country, such as Fort Reina Luisa in Osorno, with its circular bastions and massive stonework. In 1780, Italian architect Don Joaquin Toesca arrived in Santiago with his head full of the classical lines then in vogue on the continent. He was entrusted with the completion of the great episcopal city of Santiago, of which the Metropolitan Cathedral is the jewel in the crown. See its sumptuous semicircular arches supported by astonishing cruciform pillars adorned with pink marble plaques, the finely crafted, stucco-covered vaults of its nave and the pilasters punctuating its facade with elegant towers. Toesca is also responsible for the Palacio de la Moneda and the Basilica de la Merced.
Surprising 19th and early 20th centuries
During this period, Chile attracted a large number of Europeans, starting with the Germans, who left a mark that was, to say the least,... original! The multicolored wooden houses with red-tiled roofs of Puerto Montt have a very Germanic charm, as do the houses of Valdivia. The German Colonial Museum in Frutillar even features reconstructed belfries, forges, mills and country houses! Germans are also fond of neo-Gothic architecture, as illustrated by the Torre Bauer in Vicuna and the Castillo Wulff in Viña del Mar, with its crenellated towers and keep. The French also took part in this architectural effervescence. François Brunet de Baines, who wrote one of the first architecture manuals in Latin America, trained many Chilean architects, developing a resolutely French style, as seen in Santiago's Théâtre Municipal. The Franco-Chilean architect Emile Jéquier initiated the transition to modernity. He was responsible for Santiago's National Museum of Fine Arts, inspired by the Petit Palais, whose neoclassical structure is embellished with highly modern details, most notably its glass dome and Art Nouveau decor. He is also the architect of the Mapocho railway station, with its impressive dimensions and beautiful glass and steel vault. A station built in France and transported to be reassembled on site, just like Santiago station! These innovative metal structures can even be found in churches. In Coquimbo, the structure of the Guayacan church was even designed by a certain Gustave Eiffel! As was the San Marcos Cathedral in Arica.
Another feat of engineering: the elevators in Valparaiso. The Palacio Baburizza, now the city's Museum of Fine Arts, is another fine example of modernity, blending Art Nouveau woodwork and ironwork on the façade with clean, geometric Art Deco lines on the interior. The English also left their mark in Chile with their legendary clock-towers, which stand proudly in town squares in cities such as Antofagasta and Iquique. The latter is inextricably linked to the boom in the saltpetre industry. During the golden age of saltpeter production, the city was covered with very European buildings, such as the municipal theater with its neo-Renaissance façade, the Casino Espaňol with its carved wooden panels, dome and neo-Moorish ceramics, and the Palacio Astoreca, with its galleries, glass roofs, double-revolution staircases, Art Nouveau shop windows and neo-Renaissance furniture. The contrast is striking with the workers' quarters, made up of small contiguous houses linked by a common patio placed at the center of these conventillos or small convents of a new kind. This great industrial epic was also accompanied by the creation of new towns close to the raw material deposits. The sites of Humberstone and Santa Laura bear witness to this urban and architectural frenzy. Another unusual site not to be missed is the mining town of Sewell, built in 1905 to house workers in what was to become the world's largest copper mine. Nicknamed the "City of Staircases" because of its astonishing topography, Sewell is perched atop a cliff. Perched at an altitude of 2,200 m on the side of a mountain, it boasts impressive slopes. As a result, the town has developed organically in osmosis with the site, with a layout characterized by a system of exclusively pedestrian internal circulation via impressive staircases. Its wood-and-steel architecture is a model of functionalism, heralding the modernism to come.
Contemporary effervescence
From the 1950s onwards, concrete was widely used, particularly in reconstruction work. The San Mateo Cathedral in Osorno, for example, was entirely rebuilt in reinforced concrete. The Cathedral of the Most Holy Conception in Concepción, meanwhile, is an elegant hyphen between neo-Romanesque purity and rationalist sobriety. The Cross of the Third Millennium, inaugurated in Coquimbo in 2000, is more grandiloquent. It's hard not to notice this 93-metre concrete behemoth! Today, contemporary designers are returning to a more sober approach, seeking to reconcile the heritage of the past with architectural innovation. The leading figure on the Chilean architectural scene is Alejandro Aravena, winner of the prestigious Pritzker Prize (the Nobel Prize for architecture) in 2016. Aravena is best known for his "Quinta Moroy" project, launched in Iquique to reduce slum housing, for which he developed the concept of progressive housing, i.e. half-houses that can then be added to and extended by the inhabitants according to their desires and means. A project he also employed in the Villa Verde complex in Constitucion just after the 2010 tsunami. His agency, Elemental, also worked on the reconstruction of the city's coastal promenade. Other landmark projects include the concrete monolith of the UC Innovation Center and the Siamese Towers of the San Joaquin Campus of the Catholic University of Chile in Santiago.
In just a few years, the Tunquen region south of Valparaiso has become a veritable architectural Eldorado. The great names of Chilean and international architecture are building villas here, with clean lines and an emphasis on wood, glass and concrete, such as Felipe Assadi's sumptuous Casa Bahia Azul overlooking the cliff, or Victor Gubbins' villa inspired by Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye, whose three-storey raw concrete structure set on a 3 m-high square plinth evokes a watchtower. Other noteworthy contemporary achievements include the Baha'i Temple, a superb flower made of a metal structure clad in glass and marble, overlooking the town of Penalolen, and the open-air theater in Antofagasta, whose raw concrete structure seems a natural extension of the surrounding landscape. This desire to blend in with the environment is echoed in many eco-lodges, such as the Nawelpi Lodge in the heart of the Huilo Huilo ecological reserve, which uses only natural materials. Environmental protection also means more systematic recourse to rehabilitation and reuse of materials, as demonstrated by the many containers converted into housing and former industrial sites transformed into luxury hotels, such as The Singular in Santiago. Finally, this overview would not be complete without a mention of the seismic issue. Chile is one of the countries with the most stringent construction standards, and seismic-resistant innovations are constantly being developed, such as the low-isolation technique, which separates the structure of buildings from their lower parts, with the foundations supported on vibration-absorbing rubber rollers, or the energy dissipators applied to building structures, like the large Xs you see on the facade of Santiago's Titanium Tower. Surprisingly, however, César Pelli's Gran Torre Costanera in Santiago, at 300 m the tallest tower in Latin America, has none of these systems..
Vernacular riches
Chile's identity is also reflected in its traditional habitat. On the Chiloé archipelago, in the town of Castro, you can discover fishermen's houses built on stilts and called Palafitos. The archipelago is also home to some attractive multi-storey houses covered in wooden tiles, such as those in Curaco de Velez and Chonchi. On the island of Quinchao, the wooden tiles are varnished in bright colors or painted in pastel shades.
The same colors can be found in Valparaiso, famous for its traditional wood-framed houses covered with corrugated iron from containers (an inexpensive but highly insulating material!) and repainted in the brightest colors. The Cerro Concepción and Alegre districts, in the historic heart of Valparaiso, are packed with these colorful terraced houses. Many small Chilean villages have this type of brightly-colored tin house lining streets that are still made of mud.
Indigenous peoples have also developed a very rich habitat. This is particularly true of the Mapuche and their traditional ruka houses. Made from natural, biodegradable materials, the house is ephemeral, as the Mapuche wish to limit their environmental footprint as much as possible. The ruka 's frame is made of wood. Cob is used as thermal insulation to fill the walls. The roof can be thatched or tiled. In the north of the country, examples of Quechua and Aymara dwellings can be seen, featuring mud bricks and thatched roofs. Earthen or adobe construction is still widespread in Chile. Placed on wooden or metal structures, or used in the form of bricks, adobe is a durable and ecological material... but one that requires special care to withstand nature's assaults. A challenge for the architects designing the Chile of tomorrow!
